Not sure in other platforms, but in the .NET world, ORM(read Entity Framework) usage skyrocketed and improvements are made with each version of .NET released. I use Entity Framework. Both at work and when doing my home projects. Code First. I started with Database First and only recently moved to Code First. It feels so good modeling my database using C#.NET classes instead of doing it in SQL. Don't get me wrong. I do like SQL and I am very good with it, but I prefer C# better.

Speed of development greatly improved since I switched to EF. Speed of development is what matters most for me when building first version of an application.