I did some Assembler views and yes the array is always passed via reference pointer however, the reference points to ether the original table if using "Var" or it points to a table that was copied over into stack land but there is always a pointer reference in the function parameters ether way.
A CONST in this case seems to always point to the original table, basically the same a VAR but does not allow the coder of course to modify it.
So no matter how you look at it, not using a VAR causes a waste of CPU time and space that can be used for something else.
I am glad I got this clarified because I've seen lots of usages of Array parameters not using CONST or VAR.
I did a time loop study and there is definitely a difference, a large one depending on the size of the table.