I'm probably one of those programmers you think "use SQL quite happily". You're wrong.
SQL is an abstraction with myriad problems in both its core design and its disjointed implementations. ORMs and similar interfaces are crappy abstractions on top of a crappy abstraction. You get the problems of SQL combined with the problems of the ORM.
Preferring to remove a set of problems and be left with only the problems of SQL is not the same thing as liking SQL, it is merely preferring the lesser of two evils.
SQL is an abstraction with myriad problems in both its core design and its disjointed implementations. ORMs and similar interfaces are crappy abstractions on top of a crappy abstraction. You get the problems of SQL combined with the problems of the ORM.
Preferring to remove a set of problems and be left with only the problems of SQL is not the same thing as liking SQL, it is merely preferring the lesser of two evils.