The main focus of Prisma is the ORM part and not the GraphQL API anymore. We're still using GraphQL to communicate between Query Engine and the backend client in the languages we support like TypeScript or Go, but when communicating with backend to database, GraphQL is not that relevant anymore and rather a separate concern how you want to expose your API later.
When accessing the database from your backend, type-safety is becoming more and more important. Instead of writing a GraphQL string in your code, with the Prisma Client you get a type-safe programmatic API to access your data.
You can imagine it as your own SDK.
The difference to many ORMs is, that we generate a custom Client for you, which is way more powerful.
The main focus of Prisma is the ORM part and not the GraphQL API anymore. We're still using GraphQL to communicate between Query Engine and the backend client in the languages we support like TypeScript or Go, but when communicating with backend to database, GraphQL is not that relevant anymore and rather a separate concern how you want to expose your API later.
When accessing the database from your backend, type-safety is becoming more and more important. Instead of writing a GraphQL string in your code, with the Prisma Client you get a type-safe programmatic API to access your data. You can imagine it as your own SDK. The difference to many ORMs is, that we generate a custom Client for you, which is way more powerful.
Disclaimer: I work at Prisma.