Yes, it is. But tooling can improve that. For example: having worked on DB2 and Postgres, and I'd choose Postgres for any new work barring extremely unique cons

Yes, it is. But tooling can improve that. For example: having worked on DB2 and Postgres, and I'd choose Postgres for any new work barring extremely unique constraints--not because it means "I don't have to understand the details of how stuff works", but because it exposes how stuff works in a more intelligible, powerful, and useful way. Tools improve. Sometimes they repeat past mistakes--I'd pick Postgres over Hadoop/HBase too, until considerable duress. But sometimes? Sometimes tools learn from past mistakes--use those tools. Not everyone complaining about the deficiencies of current-gen tools is doing so out of ignorance or laziness about their stack.