[rbanffy]

Simplicity at one layer might mean more complexity on others - I prefer vanilla JS when possible (and modern browsers are quite good at that), but the conceptual simplicity of PHP pushes some complexity into the template rendering, and using database APIs directly do couple you to a certain way of storing data.

[lores]

Agreed, but I think there's something to be said for allowing light coupling sometimes. Anathema to "proper" design, but not uncommonly the overall complexity of a proper design makes maintenance harder, not less. I'd rather change a hardcoded SQL query than three layers of abstraction, myself; centralisation beats having to follow a trail of classes, and you always need a good test suite anyway.