I think the focus on ECS when talking about data-oriented design largely misses the point of what data-oriented design is all about. Focusing on a _code_ design pattern is the antithesis of _data_-oriented design. Data-oriented is about breaking away from the obsession with taxonomy, abstraction and world-modeling and moving towards the understanding that all software problems are data transformation problems.
It's that all games essentially (and most software in general) boil down to:
transform(input, current_state) -> output, new_state
Then, for some finite set of platforms and hardware there will be an optimal transform to accomplish this and it is our job as engineers to make "the code" approach this optimal transform.
It's that all games essentially (and most software in general) boil down to: transform(input, current_state) -> output, new_state
Then, for some finite set of platforms and hardware there will be an optimal transform to accomplish this and it is our job as engineers to make "the code" approach this optimal transform.