Absolutely. If I use a SQL db for my applications (I'm a software dev for context), I generally write raw SQL vs using an ORM. I find the long term issues of an ORM to not be worth investing and understanding SQL.

I'm also not having to learn a new library, in addition to the standard DB connection libraries, ~if~ when I switch a language or platform for some project.

I prefer to write SQL as most alternatives ether have runtime surprises or require more roundtrips to the database. I mostly work on line-of-business software, so if I was doing simple CRUD apps I might have a different opinion.

It's regularly listed in the top 5 most commonly used programming languages in the world [=

You kinda have to. Assuming that you're using an ORM, you still need to understand how it translate to SQL, and help it do the translation correctly.

Personally I've seen developer use the Django ORM, and create application with terrible performance. Tweaking the queries, you can help guide the ORM to generate better SQL, which in turn will affect your performance greatly.

We're currently facing a problem with a custom who have an application with terrible performance/scaling issues. The entire thing is very database heavy, but interaction is done solely via Hibernate. I have nothing against Hibernate, it's a fine ORM, but you need to understand it well enough that you can guide it towards better queries (Which sometimes involve actually writing SQL). At some point you need to decide if your time isn't better spend learning SQL directly, as that via always provide you with better access to the functionality provided by the database.

Yes, quite a lot I would imagine. I use it extensively at work and similarly sql heavy software companies in the past. That being said, I’ve also worked at places where they’ve avoided it like the plague – largely because few people were competent at it – and were moving away from relational DBs due to scale.

Of course. Large companies like Pepsi have teams of analysts that only write SQL. I applied for a programming job there a long time ago and didn’t follow up when they explained in the interview that’s the only language they used.

Do people still use ORMs?

Of course, and it is vastly better than using an ORM.

In the world of data analytics/BI are many people whose main job is writing SQL.