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Spot on. ORMs can generate some crazy-bad SQL if you're not careful with them. A good ORM will generate great SQL in the common case and allow the developer to execute custom SQL without fuss when necessary. If your ORM makes it a pain to pump in raw SQL in place of generated SQL, find a new ORM.

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"beautiful" sql is subjective. What does it mean? SQL that looks pretty to the eye (with proper indentation)? Or is it SQL that can run on dozens of different database servers with no modifications? Or is it SQL that can be automatically generated so you don't have to spend any time thinking about it but that runs 5% slower than something you spent 1 hour on?

I would probably go with the two last options.

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