Different drawing APIs

Hi, until now I’ve only used middlewares where you fill the screen by a bunch of draw commands every frame. But with corona you’re supposed to “build the scene” only once and just update positions every frame, correct?

Is there a name for this drawing API model?

Where is it also used? Flash? Unity?

Can it be a limitation in any case?

Why’s it that way, does such an API produce apps that run faster?

Is it easier to code with?