I do agree with the argument that you need to understand both, the ORM and SQL. The really annoying part is that you also need to understand how the ORM translates queries into SQL to some degree.
I find ORMs very convenient and useful for simple queries, and especially for inserts/updates with many-to-many relations. And that is a very large part of a typical application. But you can very quickly meet the limits of an ORM with more complex queries, and I find it easier to just step down to SQL in those cases before learning the more complex parts of the ORM.
I find ORMs very convenient and useful for simple queries, and especially for inserts/updates with many-to-many relations. And that is a very large part of a typical application. But you can very quickly meet the limits of an ORM with more complex queries, and I find it easier to just step down to SQL in those cases before learning the more complex parts of the ORM.