Exercise 3: Why MySQL Instead of the Rails Default — Possible Solution
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WHY --database=mysql WAS USED
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Per this chapter, --database=mysql adds the mysql2 gem to the generated application and pre-fills config/database.yml to connect to MySQL, rather than leaving Rails' own out-of-the-box default of SQLite in place.

WHY THIS MATTERS FOR THIS SPECIFIC REBUILD
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Per this chapter, this rebuild is meant to model the site's own real, existing production setup, and the site's actual live database is MySQL. Using SQLite - Rails' own convenient default for getting started quickly - would mean building against a database engine genuinely different from the one the real site runs on, undermining the whole point of a course whose own throughline is evolving and reasoning about the site's actual live infrastructure rather than a simplified stand-in for it.

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
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It correctly explains what the --database=mysql flag configures, and correctly ties the choice back to the site's own real production database rather than treating it as an arbitrary preference.