[silon42]

The hints are needed when you have a web scale / online transaction processing application, where you want to guarantee no table scan ever. Ideally, I'd want to rrun without statistics on the tables in that case (ie, no smart joins).

[Someone]

> where you want to guarantee no table scan ever.

If hints are what they say they are, they cannot guarantee anything.

And they indeed are hints. FTA: “The documentation is explicit: advice "can only produce plans the core planner considers viable." Advice only nudges the planner toward one it already considered.”

[setr]

honestly I dont want plan hinting so much as being able to ban table-scanning / nested loops / etc on specific tables, and be able to set that independent of actual table-size so I can coerce its failure in dev environments

[silon42]

+1 I agree... (except nested loops are rarely the problem, they are often the best/simplest alternative for join).