The biggest fallacy in this particular debate is the idea that ORMs are somewhat "higher level" whereas SQL is "lower level". SQL is a 4GL, and as such, a much

The biggest fallacy in this particular debate is the idea that ORMs are somewhat "higher level" whereas SQL is "lower level". SQL is a 4GL, and as such, a much more higher level language than anything you can do with an ORM, which leads to much more "lower level", imperative data interaction patterns. On the other hand, a lot of people put their database in lower layers often confused with or used as synonym for levels. So, the level-ness depends on what you're trying to abstract. Algorithms? SQL will be higher level. Layers? ORMs will be higher level.