Excellent points. Still, "powerful" is defined by client needs (especially performance) and client needs are based on 30 years of expectations derived from the

Excellent points. Still, "powerful" is defined by client needs (especially performance) and client needs are based on 30 years of expectations derived from the relational model (even if most clients have no idea that's what they want). If you're exposed to the accretion of business requirements you do not control, you'll eventually be pushed toward a definition of "power" that relational databases meet the best... except when the dataset gets large. What you say is still true, of course, and will only become more true over time. As more work is put into technologies, they tend to become more well-rounded. Languages that used to have awful performance (100x C) are now closer to 3-5x, for one example. The best NoSQLs now have many of the traditionally relational benefits, and the best relational databases (e.g. PostgreSQL) are overcoming traditional deficits associated with "relational".