LATERAL deixa a subquery referenciar colunas da query externa. Útil para
“top-N por grupo”:
SELECT u.id, recent.*
FROM users u
CROSS JOIN LATERAL (
SELECT created_at, amount
FROM payments p
WHERE p.user_id = u.id
ORDER BY created_at DESC
LIMIT 3
) AS recent;
Cada linha de users recebe as 3 últimas payments dela.