[sureglymop]

I learned about database theory a few times (and even interned as a DBA before I started uni). But it wasn't until my discrete math class in university that I finally understood, "oh, that's why we call a table a relation, a row a tuple, etc", and from there - started understanding the whole relational model and why it makes sense.

I think ORMs however, became a thing more so due to fear of having to write (correct) SQL. It was meant to reduce complexity for developers but of course that's not really how it panned out in reality.