[gngeal]

"The only problem I see, is we can't rewrite SQL."

I believe that the phrase you're looking for is "lack of compositionality".

[drdaeman]

I fail to see why one can't manipulate parsed SQL's AST. SQLAlchemy shows thas manipulating SQL-inspired objects is perfectly possible.

It's only bridge between sqlparse and SQLAlchemy that's missing. I guess, just because nobody had a wish, will and time to finish and share one.

[gngeal]

I fail to see why one can't manipulate parsed SQL's AST.

I think that this is the "every problem in CS can be solved by another layer of indirection" part. You're basically sidestepping the issue of SQL not providing the functionality in the first place.