You can write code in any language without defining functions or modularizing in any way. You can write bad code in any language. For some reason, folks assume

You can write code in any language without defining functions or modularizing in any way. You can write bad code in any language. For some reason, folks assume SQL must be written badly since they have only written it badly or seen it written so. It is absolutely possible and preferable to write maintainable SQL logic into user defined functions, stored procedures, views, materialized views, CTEs, temporary tables, etc. If you're looking at one huge pile of monolithic, untestable SQL, the problem isn't the SQL. One doesn't write O(n^3) algorithms in C++ and then blame C++ for it being slow. For some reason, folks seem pleased with themselves to do as such with SQL though every day and twice on Sunday. Got subselects in each of the fifteen outer joins with NULLs all over your schema, and now you're upset performance is horrible and inconsistent? PEBKAC.