by Tim Hunt.
No one is saying don't hand-code SQL. They are saying follow the coding guidelines so that it works on all DBs. The do do that all the time and never make a mistake is hard.
And installing Oracle (for Moodle development) is too much of a pain. I have never done it and I don't intend to. Call it an irrational prejudice agains overly expensive closed-source software if you like. You would be almost right. Just that it is rational