People who learn the nitty-gritty details and all the gotchas and tricks in the book, appear to be experts and their job positions depend on it. It's all a bit "ludditic", people confuse this familiarity with arcane commands and proficiency with real expertise and deep knowledge. When you challenge that, you challenge their existence. Knowing how null behaves (Null = null vs null is null) is one of those shibboleths that differentiates an sql wizard from a lowly commoner, like knowing all the nuances of prototype inheritance makes one a true JS champion. These people charge a pretty penny to optimize badly written sql queries and fix your joins. And you want to take that away from them.