[okbake]

A big benefit of the `users->where(...)` approach is being able to reuse and compose. An example would be conditionally adding a WHERE clause based on some parameters. Using the raw query approach you end up having to do some string concatenation versus managing the state of the some query builder object.

I think that the "query builders" though are just one piece of the ORM that you mention, alongside the change-tracking, data mapping, etc. Having a decent query builder that isn't abstracting away too much of the underlying sql (essentially just mapping 1-to-1) plus data mapping are the sweet spot for me personally.

[kingdomcome50]

You are correct.

Interestingly, it is this exact property (composition) that creates the most common problems when using an ORM.

Composition is often at odds with optimization.