See tools like pandas and Polars. These database libraries are abstractions that give you a spray of SQL functionality. I prefer using these libraries because it feels much more intuitive (and works with the Python/arrow ecosystem). (I'm also biased since I make a portion of my living off of pandas training material.)

We do use raw sql, but we're a security business which tends to have heavy reliance on other languages that have a similar syntax to pql

Here is a long blogpost "against SQL" which lists many deficiencies of it: https://www.scattered-thoughts.net/writing/against-sql/

In short, it has a longer spec than famously-complex C++ while making a much less expressive language out of it.