Precisely! I've been using ORM pattern throughout my career, and have even designed/built one 10 years ago because what was available at the time wasn't gonna

Precisely! I've been using ORM pattern throughout my career, and have even designed/built one 10 years ago because what was available at the time wasn't gonna cut it functionality- and performance-wise for the system we were building (a real-time bond trading system). Nowadays most mainstream ORMs do the job rather adequately. Having said that, I have a fair share of gripes against most of them, but I still find that people who bitch the most about ORMs are those who understand it (and the problem it tries to solve) the least.