Explanation
External tables do not have data retention period applicable.
Good to Understand other Options available.
DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS
Type: Object (for databases, schemas, and tables) - Can be set for Account - Database - Schema - Table Description: Number of days for which Snowflake retains historical data for performing Time Trav-el actions (SELECT, CLONE, UNDROP) on the object. A value of 0 effectively disables Time Travel for the specified database, schema, or table.
Values:
0 or 1 (for Standard Edition)
0 to 90 (for Enterprise Edition or higher)
Default:
1
MAX_DATA_EXTENSION_TIME_IN_DAYS
Type: Object (for databases, schemas, and tables) - Can be set for Account - Database - Schema - Table Description: Maximum number of days for which Snowflake can extend the data retention period for tables to prevent streams on the tables from becoming stale. By default, if the DA-TA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS setting for a source table is less than 14 days, and a stream has not been consumed, Snowflake temporarily extends this period to the stream's offset, up to a maximum of 14 days, regardless of the Snowflake Edition for your account. The MAX_DATA_EXTENSION_TIME_IN_DAYS parameter enables you to limit this automatic ex-tension period to control storage costs for data retention or for compliance reasons.
This parameter can be set at the account, database, schema, and table levels. Note that setting the parameter at the account or schema level only affects tables for which the parameter has not already been explicitly set at a lower level (e.g. at the table level by the table owner). A value of 0 effective-ly disables the automatic extension for the specified database, schema, or table.
Values:
0 to 90 (i.e. 90 days) - a value of 0 disables the automatic extension of the data retention period. To increase the maximum value for tables in your account, Client needs to contact Snowflake Sup-port.
Default:14

Explanation
Materialized Views works best for search query performance in case of Sort Operations. For Rest of the points Search optimization works best to improve query performance.