It sounds like we are agreeing then. If you are using the data for ad-hoc reporting via a SQL query tool for example, you're not just using your database as a s

It sounds like we are agreeing then. If you are using the data for ad-hoc reporting via a SQL query tool for example, you're not just using your database as a simple program data persistence layer. If you're not careful though, your program-oriented database won't be very useful outside the realm of the program. As an example, I worked on a database where they persisted a good chunk of data in each record as a JSON string. They did it because they didn't want the hassle of updating the database schema. It worked fine for their needs inside the program, but it was kind of hard to do an ad-hoc query on that.