So, SQL is the shovel, correct?
Since we are in the world of analogies, using an ORM is like taking a shovel and using it as a prop (without speaking) to explain excavator operator where to dig, how deep, how wide, what things to avoid etc. Except querying a database can be much more complicated. You might be successful with some simple tasks, but it will fall flat on more advanced things.
Anyway perhaps if databases would expose an interface and allowed you to directly write a query plan then that wouldn't be so bad? But then many people would complain that you need to know a lot ot use it, and also based on data your plan for the same data might need to be different to be fast.
Whereas, the mini-ex is a complex hydraulic machine requiring regular maintenance and an operator that knows how to use the controls, and a fuel source. Lots of dependencies.
There was a youtube video of a group of men using shovels cooperatively to ‘throw’ cement:
var males = from p in context.Person where p.Sex = “M” select c;
The mindset was correctness and validity of a detailed and interrelated collection of known facts, at rest on disk.
Merging 2 of these, say when an insurance Corp buys a competitor, took detailed and painstaking effort by people with both the domain and systems knowledge.
It's very different now,with Json doc stores, where in 5 years time noone will know what timezone that happened in, or if this person is that person with different name because of lossy utf8->ASCII .