I don't mind DE to have a windows-mimicking workflow (cinnamon, KDE kinda) but modding Gnome to mimick windows is not great because it causes weird bug and maintenance issues. Aka it breaks easily and gives bad impressions to the user
Orm are a way to handle seamlessly the model aspect of a codebase. But I agree.
My first big project (Symfony, with doctrine orm), we had to have several SQL requests made by hand due to the complexity of the databases here and there. So we were kept on our toes when it came to database knowledge haha
I'm this close to dropping everything and becoming an ermit living at the top of a mountain.