I disagree. I use ORMs/Query Builders for two reasons (even if deeply familiar with SQL syntax and semantics). 1. Dynamic queries for reporting purposes. Is it

I disagree. I use ORMs/Query Builders for two reasons (even if deeply familiar with SQL syntax and semantics). 1. Dynamic queries for reporting purposes. Is it possible to hand roll this with SQL string concat for every query? Yes. Some of us value time and correctness. 2. Type safety/Refactoring and change management. Sure even a Query Builder/ORM model doesn't know if it matches the production database at compile time. But when your database does change and you need to update the model to match it then it is a lot easier to do a refactoring on the record than to manually update every SQL query string where that table is involved and hope there isn't a missing test or invalid query out there which will now be broken.