I find the join syntax particularly ugly. In SQL, "X INNER JOIN Y ON something" is a well-behaved table-type value that can directly replace "X" in a query and

I find the join syntax particularly ugly. In SQL, "X INNER JOIN Y ON something" is a well-behaved table-type value that can directly replace "X" in a query and can be nested in further joins. Here I must name a join, as if it is a property of a table, and it isn't clear what I'm joining and selecting exactly.