[SQLRockstar]

...or, I could use "mvw" to designate a new type of object...

I agree, the client shouldn't care about the data being a table or a view. But as a DBA, if I need to quickly find a solution to a problem, the use of a prefix can be a benefit.

There are costs and risks for all design choices. If you are working with a system that is growing and prone to the need of denormalizing frequently then perhaps using a prefix isn't the right choice.

But not every system has that issue. I see more cases these days of smaller databases...think "one database per customer" type of architecture. Denormalization isn't an issue often, and prefixes seem to work just fine.