Another interesting feature behind Moai is the that you have access to both Lua and C++ to develop your game.
After setting up your nodes and actions using Lua, Moai SDK runs the simulation using native code written in C++. This means that you get the best of both worlds—the flexibility of Lua and the speed of C++.
All the platform-specific stuff (for example, handling the accelerometer on a smartphone) should be handled natively and connected to Moai SDK using a Lua extension or input events (check how hosts configure AKU, search for the AKUSetInputDevice* family of methods).
This is a key concept for Moai SDK development, because you can see that there is no limit to what libraries you can use with Moai SDK. It's just a matter of taking the time to write a Lua extension for it, and Bam! It's available in the scripting environment; you can combine the library functionality with your already existing game.
Aside from this, there is always the interpreted versus compiled native code...