Not the person you replied to, but I have! A java project I worked on a couple years ago used a thin persistence layer called JOOQ (java library). It basically helps you safely write sql in java, without ORM abstractions. Worked just fine for our complex enterprise app.

Sql migrations? This is a solved problem: https://github.com/flyway/flyway

What about micro services? You write some terraform to provision a sql database (e.g. aws aurora) just like you would with dynamo db or similar. What does that have to do with ORMs?

What about redis? Suddenly we need an ORM to query redis, to check if a key exists in the cache before hitting our DB? That’s difficult code to write?

I’m confused reading your comment. It has “you don’t do things my way so you must be dumb and playing with toy projects” vibes.

As a previous user of alembic I was surprised that flyway's migrations only go forward by default and that reversing them is a premium feature. That's like having the luxury trim being the one with seatbelts.

From what I can se jooq is only really type safe with pojo mappings, to what point it is an orm with an expressive query dsl.

Alternatively you use record style outputs, but that is prone to errors if positions are changed.

Regardless, even with jooq you still accept that there is a sizable application layer to take responsibility of the requirements I listed.