Back in the day, we were use a SQL db on the PC. The planner wasn’t particularly sophisticated in those days, nor was the data volume crushing. But in the end

Back in the day, we were use a SQL db on the PC. The planner wasn’t particularly sophisticated in those days, nor was the data volume crushing. But in the end, we would take all of our queries, and check their plans. We would pad the db with data until the combination of data and statistics and the planner all did what we wanted. Once we were happy with the statistics and the results we’d reset the database with “empty” data for the customer, and never touch the statistics again. We were mostly trying to eliminate table scans on simple queries and joins, and influencing index selection.