[dazzer]

Interpreted pedantically, removing ORM techniques means dealing directly with resultsets or loosly typed structures. This is definitely what I DO NOT want in any of my views. If you're working with an OO language like C#.NET or Java, good luck!

Any abstraction on any level is going to add a performance hit no matter what.

If this was really an issue, wrap your ORM Framework stuff (differentiating from ORM the pattern) in a DAL layer so that your BLL does not worry about the existence of the ORM. Then as you scale, optimise your DAL with either inbuilt optimisations or when desperate write your own SQL (if you don't even know SQL then you're a poor excuse of a developer)

Think of them as like Ikea furniture - they don't look great, and they don't often fit in every household if they have complex requirements. But they're highly modular, and easy to assemble. So when you need something in a jiffy, just bring it home, fix it up and it'll perform its purpose. When it no longer fits the purpose, get something else. And every household has to just start somewhere.