I don't like to say "you're doing it wrong", but TBH it sounds like you are.
> restricted to SQL structures
So is your ORM; it just adds a layer of abstraction
> require absurd hacks or custom dlls
Literally no idea what you're doing that views require anything out of the ordinary, or indeed "custom DLLs"
> not properly source controlled
Eh? You can store your view DDL files in source control just fine. I mean, they're just SQL files; why couldn't you?
> difficult to perform performance analysis on
I don't see how ORMs offer any advantage here - if anything, SQL has the edge here, since your typical SQL GUI will draw pretty graphs to help visualise EXPLAIN, and some (e.g. SSMS) will even suggest missing indexes
> hard to update
It's just SQL, and for views typically rather basic SQL at that.
I use ORMs on 99% of the projects I work on, sometimes heavyweights like Entity Framework Core or Marten (which I love, BTW), and sometimes more lightweight like Dapper - but I know when to use the right tool for the job, and sometimes that's SQL views. I just don't get any of your arguments against them.
What SQL GUIs do you use that draws graphs for EXPLAIN statements? The ones I've used for OSX (PopSQL, Sequel Pro, TablePlus) hasn't had that feature. Haven't used MySQL Workbench in a few years, so not sure about that one.
I mentioned SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), which is a great GUI for SQL Server. There is also pgAdmin (both 3.x and 4.x have this feature), and it's also available in Azure Data Studio (for SQL Server; it's coming soon for the Postgres version).
> restricted to SQL structures
So is your ORM; it just adds a layer of abstraction
> require absurd hacks or custom dlls
Literally no idea what you're doing that views require anything out of the ordinary, or indeed "custom DLLs"
> not properly source controlled
Eh? You can store your view DDL files in source control just fine. I mean, they're just SQL files; why couldn't you?
> difficult to perform performance analysis on
I don't see how ORMs offer any advantage here - if anything, SQL has the edge here, since your typical SQL GUI will draw pretty graphs to help visualise EXPLAIN, and some (e.g. SSMS) will even suggest missing indexes
> hard to update
It's just SQL, and for views typically rather basic SQL at that.
I use ORMs on 99% of the projects I work on, sometimes heavyweights like Entity Framework Core or Marten (which I love, BTW), and sometimes more lightweight like Dapper - but I know when to use the right tool for the job, and sometimes that's SQL views. I just don't get any of your arguments against them.