From my research I've found that once a exported site template or solution is edited by Visual Studio is becomes either a Farm Solution or a Sandboxed solution with the latter requring that the "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Sandboxed Code Service" be running in order to be deployed at the SC level.
What I would like to know is what type of template is exported from a site when you use theSite Settings > Site Actions > Save site as template function. When we export templates this way, we can activate it and create new sites based upon it without having to activate the "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Sandboxed Code Service". Is a template that is saved this way considered a different type other than Farm or Sandboxed? Are their any primary differences or concerns we should have when using this type of template in the originating site collection or with another site collection?