I get the impression that a lot of folks take it as an article of faith that accuracy problems in the database must be due to a shortcoming of the database itse

I get the impression that a lot of folks take it as an article of faith that accuracy problems in the database must be due to a shortcoming of the database itself. But if you replace the database with a spreadsheet, everyone seems to be able to intuitively understand that accuracy problems with the information in the spreadsheet aren't (necessarily) due to shortcomings in the basic idea behind Microsoft Excel. They're more often due to data entry errors, or the fact that it's fundamentally difficult to keep track of everything that happens in the messy, messy real world. (Realistically, the former is just a special case of the latter.)