So - gain by not re-planning on every call, but maybe lose because your plan is not so precise.
Of course, any queries you build dynamically and run via EXECUTE will have to be planned each time.
This question gets even more complex in 7.4, where many simple SQL functions will get inlined, and library preloading is available to speed that first PL/pgSQL call.
I think the best way to answer this question for any particular function is to try it both ways (if the function *can* be written as a SQL function) and see for yourself. And if you do this in 7.3, redo it when you upgrade to 7.4.
HTH,
Joe
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