I’m not sure why you thought I meant code clarity and not performance? It’s clear in all cases the correct SQL query will be more performant.

Confused at what you’re evening trying to say here. Are you suggesting that 100 lines of application layer code is easier to understand than 15 lines of SQL?

The correct SQL query will be more performant than what? The correct ORM call will build the same correct SQL query.

ORM is ultimately SQL