I think something like QBE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Query_by_Example; about as old as SQL) is the way to let non-programmers write queries.
Instadeq: A Live Programming Environment for End User Data Analysis and Visualization
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTEkYqnGICE Slides: https://marianoguerra.github.io/presentations/2021-live/