When two data types have the same binary representation, PostgreSQL may
add an implicit coercion between them by wrapping a node in a relabel
type. This wrapper signals that the wrapped value is completely binary
compatible with the designated "final type" of the relabel node. As an
example, the varchar type is often relabeled to text, since functions
provided for use with text (comparisons, hashes, etc.) are completely
compatible with varchar as well.
The hash-partitioned codepath contains functions that verify queries
actually contain an equality constraint on the partition column, but
those functions expect such constraints to be comparison operations
between a Var and Const. The RelabelType wrapper node causes these
functions to always return false, which bypasses shard pruning.
Jason Petersen
Onder Kalaci