SQL was the first language I ever learned, so perhaps my perspective is skewed, but it seems like it would be pretty hard to use an ORM without gaining an intuition into how SQL works.
What is a trap I see often among ORM users is them running into the n+1 problem. However, that's actually a consequence of database implementations not being theoretically pure. If you had an ideal SQL database then their approach would be technically correct. They aren't wrong to think that way.
It's just that we don't have ideal SQL databases, so we have to resort to hacks to make things work in the real world. Why we need to break from the theoretical model and use those hacks can be difficult to understand if you aren't familiar with the implementation at a lower level.
What is a trap I see often among ORM users is them running into the n+1 problem. However, that's actually a consequence of database implementations not being theoretically pure. If you had an ideal SQL database then their approach would be technically correct. They aren't wrong to think that way.
It's just that we don't have ideal SQL databases, so we have to resort to hacks to make things work in the real world. Why we need to break from the theoretical model and use those hacks can be difficult to understand if you aren't familiar with the implementation at a lower level.