The vietnam of computer science was written 20 years ago (2006 even), and didn't kill off ORMs then. We've only had 20 years of improvement of ORMs since then. We've long ago accepted Vietnam (the country) as what it is and what it will be in the forseeable future. We should do the same with ORM.

I for one don't want to write in a low level assembly language, and shouldn't have to in 2026. Yet, SQL still feels like one.

I've written a lot of one off products using an ORM, and I don't regret any of the time savings from doing so. When and if I make $5-50M a year on a shipped product, okay, maybe I'll think about optimizing. And then I'll hire an expert while I galavant around europe.