The composability of ORM queries is a huge benefit to organization and readability -- but not all ORMs handle that well.

The article makes a good point; I never think of an ORM as a replacement for SQL -- it can work in concert with it. A lot of my code is much simpler with an ORM than it would be worth out it and in other places it's much simpler with direct SQL than without it. Both can live together harmoniously.