How to customize Laravels database query builder?

For Eloquent models one may create custom query scopes like this:

class User extends Model
{
   
    public function scopePopular($query)
    {
        return $query->where('votes', '>', 100);
    }

And then one may call it like this:

User::popular()->get();

I would like to use such scope functions for a queries that I use with the database query builder of Laravel. Something like

\DB::table('users')->popular()->get();

I have to use the database query builder, because I query for a large result set and converting them into Eloquent models takes too long.

It is possible to define query scopes for the Laravel database query builder?

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Remarks

1. In the answer of https://stackoverflow.com/a/28420807/2311074 a solution is proposed where one has to create a extra class, so something like \DB::table('users')->popular()->get(); would not work.

2. I also tried something like

    class MyCustomDB extends DB
    {
        public function popular($query)
        {
           // ...
         }
    }
   

   But

    MyCustomDB::table('users')->popular()->get();
   

   failed with

    BadMethodCallException: Method Illuminate\Database\Query\Builder::popular does not exist.
   

3. In How to customize Laravel's Database\Query\Builder (make better subquery) a solution is proposed how to customize the query builder for Eloquent models. But not how to customize the query builder for the database.

via Chebli Mohamed