Adding a non-NULL column to an existing table with millions of rows, and then updating the entity/model objects upwards towards the UI is non-trivial - I find m

Adding a non-NULL column to an existing table with millions of rows, and then updating the entity/model objects upwards towards the UI is non-trivial - I find myself "queuing up" planned database schema changes and applying them in a batch. What I'd love is a traditional database system with the concept of "cheap columns" that store "just data" scalar values, which can be easily created, dropped and manipulated - they're addressable so they can be used in queries and statistics/analytics, but the values themselves won't need indexes or referential-integrity - and for an ORM and Scaffolding system to support them - that way I won't pull out my hair when the client says one day "let's go from a single column for the customer's name to having separate title/first/middle/last/suffix columns"... and back again the week after.