I think Mongrel2 has some cool ideas in its design, but using sqlite for configuration seems very heavy, creates more dependencies and you can't edit the data in a text editor which moves away from how you traditionally configure a unix service. Bad choice.
I think the traditional way of configuring a unix service manually using a random config file format that hides the underlying data structure is a bad choice. I'm trying to provide a way to automate things, and the best way to do that is with a universal data structure and langauge that modifies it accessible from every programming language.
sqlite3 fits that goal.
In other words, try doing .schema on your nginx.conf.
Initially I didn't like the idea of using sqlite for the config, but actually, this makes total sense and I agree with it as long as you don't make it into something Lovecraftian :D