ORM's let you write a lot less code since you don't have to do the object-relational mapping yourself. That's just one of several reasons I usually recommend t

ORM's let you write a lot less code since you don't have to do the object-relational mapping yourself. That's just one of several reasons I usually recommend them. The issue is, as you've pointed out, that people sometime use ORM's as an excuse to not understand SQL, which is a terrible idea. But the bottom line is that you have to optimize all your database calls, including ones implemented with ORM.