[jrm4]

To go big picture; I'm kind of glad databases are largely like cars in this respect, in ways that other software tooling isn't.

Which is to say they're frequently good enough such that the human working with them on whatever level can safely not know a lot of these details and get a LOT done. Kudos to whoever deserves them here.

[charcircuit]

Isn't that true for almost all software? You only need to know the implementation of a small subset of parts. I would say databases are worse since you need to know how they are implemented else you will start making O(rows) queries or doing other inefficient stuff.

[jrm4]

Going broadly (which is all I can do because I teach this stuff and don't build in depth) -- "the database" is the part I can most easily "abstract" away as if it were walled off?

As opposed to aspirationally discrete classifications that end up being porous, e.g. MVC, "Object Oriented" etc.