Thanks for your response and the welcome, HartleySan!
Storing images/blobs in the database is justifiable in certain use cases, and under certain conditions, many of which are noted on the SO you linked to.
One software solution I work with now is facing serious challenges associated with multi-location based usage because they architecturally decided to store all images and files in an encrypted disk image.
As computers become faster, and db engines are actively developed to take advantage of these advancements, it is conceivable that we will eventually just store everything in a database (or equivalent data persistence layer). And in fact, in Core Data (iOS/OS X ORM), it is encouraged to just construct the model as containing the blob and enable the OS to decide whether to store the file externally or in the db.
I believe it's true that excluding a column in a select will mean that data does not get fetched. Although, it's also possible that some db engines or middleware may be doing pre-fetching or other such routines, and of course select *s will just grab everything (take your pick in calling it programmer efficiency or laziness). So for the minimal additional effort, when storing blobs in a db, I would isolate them even when it's a one-to-one relation.