I think I can give a better example that isn't purely about performing updates, but is still about "simple things" and not particularly complex flows.
In my API, I have models from my ORM. These can then be used for database migrations, which allows changes in my database structure to be checked in to version control.
From there, these models are obviously used for queries within my app. Generally, you are correct that generating a simple query with the ORM is not meaningfully easier than writing the SQL myself, with the one exception being that the ORM sanitizes inputs to my queries without me having to think about it at all, which is nice.
From there though, I can use the models from my ORM to automatically validate incoming requests to the API endpoints, as well as automatically serialize the results of my queries when I want to send a response back to the client. If you're not building a REST API, obviously this might not be particularly useful, but for someone that is, it has saved me a lot of work.
Finally, generally I find code in my code is a bit easier to debug than strings.
In my API, I have models from my ORM. These can then be used for database migrations, which allows changes in my database structure to be checked in to version control.
From there, these models are obviously used for queries within my app. Generally, you are correct that generating a simple query with the ORM is not meaningfully easier than writing the SQL myself, with the one exception being that the ORM sanitizes inputs to my queries without me having to think about it at all, which is nice.
From there though, I can use the models from my ORM to automatically validate incoming requests to the API endpoints, as well as automatically serialize the results of my queries when I want to send a response back to the client. If you're not building a REST API, obviously this might not be particularly useful, but for someone that is, it has saved me a lot of work.
Finally, generally I find code in my code is a bit easier to debug than strings.