[vemv]

This particular is easy to pick up and remember.

Also, a proficient developer looks at the SQL logs anyway as they develop a given feature.

Rails' flavor of ORM is particularly composable and transparent - you can easily mix/match it with vanilla SQL.

[resonious]

I guess this is a fair point. It is easy to use SQL with AR. But when you do so, you get lambasted in code review by people saying "you can generate this same SQL with this arcane Arel incantation!!". But that is certainly a culture problem and not a technical one!