Пугающий Nested Loop от Микрософта

select * 
from authors a 
inner join titleauthor ta 
on a.au_id = ta.au_id

|-Nested Loops(Inner Join)
 |-Bookmark Lookup(Bmk1000 IN pubs..authors AS a)
 |--Filter(like(a.au_lname, "R%"))
 |---Index Seek(pubs..authors. aunmind AS a, 
  SEEK: (a.au_lname >= "QЯ" AND a.au_lname < "s") ORDERED)     <--- получается, что нестрогое
                                                                    неравенство даст ошибку.
 |--Clustered Index Seek(pubs. .titleauthor.UPKCL_taind AS ta, 
  SEEK: (ta.au_id=a.au_id) ORDERED)