[ljm]

Agreed, and there's a lot you can gain from an ORM/query builder just in terms of ergonomics or niceness for the 80% use-case.

Doing intensive string manipulation to put your query together becomes painful, fast, especially when you're dealing with optional parts like ordering, limiting, filtering, pagination, etc. It's also incredibly easy to slip in an injection vulnerability as you do that (especially if you're new to programming).

Just don't use it as a crutch because the declarative nature of SQL is vastly more powerful than an imperative wrapper and you'll be at a loss for only knowing the conventions and opinions of your ORM of choice.