z3rlimit behaving differently in ide mode v.s. command line mode?

[LukeXuan]

I have a file which adjusts z3rlimit inline with the following macro

#push-options "--z3rlimit 10"

For some reason, this enables Z3 to solve a lemma in emacs (--ide mode). However, the following command line failed,

/.../fstar.exe file.fst --smt /.../z3 --include /.../lib --already_cached \* --cache_checked_modules --ext context_pruning

I made sure the emacs sub-process is invoked with the same arguments (except for --ide). Is there any insight into why this happens? I can easily fix the problem by increasing the limit to 20, but it's bothering me not knowing the culprit.