Because we call someone using a programming language a programmer. But certainly many professionals who arent full-time programmers write Excel formulas or queries.

The intention of SQL was to be used by domain experts rather than computer scientists. I’d say it have been successful at that.

I'm not sure "normies" is the right grouping. I think that is too broad some people are artists and some people just aren't that curious to try. I think a better group to target is "makers" I think that's anyone with enough ambition to at least try and fix a plug or change a lightbulb.

I am quite sure that plenty of Excel users know BASIC and SQL.

I think this has less to do with design flaws of SQL and more to do with normie users historically not touching databases and query engines directly

I would love having the capability of just writing json-esque SQL that has the most basic type checks, alas we live in purgatory with weird build systems to validate queries.

I'd say BASIC might have been common among non-developers, if it hadn't been deliberately killed (or at least severely mis-handled).