It's not really an either or thing. There are plenty of reasons to avoid an ORM. When I talk to python devs who don't like ORMs I recommend SQLAlchemy Core. I

It's not really an either or thing. There are plenty of reasons to avoid an ORM. When I talk to python devs who don't like ORMs I recommend SQLAlchemy Core. It's all the most important parts without the ORM. In my experience most people against ORMs are not dead set on writing SQL by hand, they just don't like OOP. Of course there are some DBAs disguised as programmers running around, but they're more of an exception than the rule :-).