In both the "never use an ORM" and "always use assembly" cases, the argument is based entirely on having full control of what's going on and not trusting any in

In both the "never use an ORM" and "always use assembly" cases, the argument is based entirely on having full control of what's going on and not trusting any intermediate layer to get it right or eke out every last femtosecond worth of performance. So it's a perfectly fair comparison.