I think the main problem is getting compile time errors and autocomplete for your queries. Something like Kysely doesn't fully solve this but it avoids dumb err

I think the main problem is getting compile time errors and autocomplete for your queries. Something like Kysely doesn't fully solve this but it avoids dumb errors like typos in sql commands or hanging commas. That being said, writing pure sql with Jetbrains IDEs is pretty amazing since you can get autocomplete straight from your production db schema. We use sqlx in Go + pure SQL and it works pretty well. Very simple things take slightly longer but writing complex queries is more straightforward than trying to get the builder to do the right thing.