Gas usage difference between Remix and Ganache/public networks

Question

I'm trying to integrate a contract into a front end with MetaMask and getting different gas amounts depending on the network and compile options I use.

• Remix ("Enable Optimization" checked): 90,410

• Ganache/Rinkeby (no optimization): 112,500

• Ganache/Rinkeby (with optimization): 101,431

I actually got the optimization settings from the Remix GitHub page here: https://github.com/ethereum/remix-ide/blob/14c22658ef5b6aa49ee31d5c92882c8a3c9e42fe/src/app/compiler/compiler-input.js

My solc configuration looks like this. The only change I'm making to optimize is to add the optimizer setting below.

let jsonContractSource = JSON.stringify({
    language: 'Solidity',
    sources: {
      'Task': {
          content: source,
       },
    },
    settings: { 
      optimizer: {
        enabled: true,
        runs: 200
      },
      outputSelection: {
          '*': {
              '*': ['abi',"evm.bytecode"],   
          },
      },
    },
});

module.exports = JSON.parse(solc.compile(jsonContractSource)).contracts.Task.MyContract;

I spent a decent amount of time trying to optimize the gas consumption of the function itself in Remix, but I think I must be missing something in terms of solc configuration.

As an additional question, are there any risks associated with using solc's optimizer?