[kbenson]

> I’m constantly flabagastered by what’s considered novel in the world of MySQL.

What's that in reference to? The article explains that MySQL implemented group by using a newer standard than many competitors did, by looking at functional dependencies. Not exactly novel, but good for MySQL, they decided to go beyond the competition when finally catching up on this particular feature.

There are, of course, many other problems with MySQL (as you allude to), such as silently ignoring CHECK constraints, but that doesn't seem to make sense as what you were referring to in context of what they consider novel.