This is definitely a big concern -- we thought about this a lot (and still do). In practice, it turns out that most people pick ReQL up very easily and don't g

This is definitely a big concern -- we thought about this a lot (and still do). In practice, it turns out that most people pick ReQL up very easily and don't get confused or annoyed by these issues after getting acquainted with the language. That being said, we've toyed with the idea of having a string-based implementation, so people who are uneasy about these features could use the model they're already familiar with. (We didn't do this yet, but we likely will if there's enough demand for it)