You cite this as the primary reason, but how much easier would this have been without stored procedures and especially views? I would think harder if anything.
It can be the primary reason, but it is generally one of a few very good reasons (performance is often another big one, as this article points out).
I will say its importance is somewhat contextual though. The 3 principal contextual factors that make this reason significant are: (1) A large, complex database/model, (2) A rapidly evolving data model (such as during development or prototyping and fast business requirement changes, and (3) a clear division between back-end and front-end guys on your team. Those are the most important factors, but they are not the only ones. When these factors are significant, you really want to encapsulate DB access from client work. The client should simply declaratively say what they want, and this enforced contract is maintained by the back-end team while the back-end team is free to implement the details, presumably better than the front-end team could. For example, if a query initially involves just joining a fact to a dimension, a front-end user might think they could simply write this in their ORM. But, if the model changes and this later requires 4 or 5 other joins to the get the needed data (because the modeler or business or whatever decided it to be so), then the client code can remain as is while the back-end team can rewrite the implementation details, maintaining performance and correctness of implementation as needed.
I will say its importance is somewhat contextual though. The 3 principal contextual factors that make this reason significant are: (1) A large, complex database/model, (2) A rapidly evolving data model (such as during development or prototyping and fast business requirement changes, and (3) a clear division between back-end and front-end guys on your team. Those are the most important factors, but they are not the only ones. When these factors are significant, you really want to encapsulate DB access from client work. The client should simply declaratively say what they want, and this enforced contract is maintained by the back-end team while the back-end team is free to implement the details, presumably better than the front-end team could. For example, if a query initially involves just joining a fact to a dimension, a front-end user might think they could simply write this in their ORM. But, if the model changes and this later requires 4 or 5 other joins to the get the needed data (because the modeler or business or whatever decided it to be so), then the client code can remain as is while the back-end team can rewrite the implementation details, maintaining performance and correctness of implementation as needed.