Is accessing files via a loopback share the same as using a local path?

Question from a user (paraphrased): When we access a local file via loopback UNC path, is this the same as accessing via the local path? I mean, is  "C:myfoldera.txt" equal to "\myservermysharea.txt" or I'll be using TCP/IP in any way?

Answer from SMB developer: When accessing files over loopback, the initial connect and the metadata operations (open, query info, query directory, etc.) are sent over the loopback connection. However, once a file is open we detect it and forward reads/writes directly to the file system such that TCP/IP is not used. Thus there is some difference for metadata operations, but data operations (where the majority of the data is transferred) behave just like local access.