> There is little innovation in the database space: there are hundreds of general-purpose programming languages, but very few "database" languages.
That's one way to look at it, but another way is to consider that, as a sort of assembly, SQL is as good a language to express relational algebra as any, given that many devs don't usually write a lot of raw SQL themselves.
When you look at the ORM and query builder space, there are a lot of different solutions - you don't have to like them (for example, I don't generally like ORMs), but they definitely exist, and they have all sorts of capabilities for type-safety, composability, and so on.
That's one way to look at it, but another way is to consider that, as a sort of assembly, SQL is as good a language to express relational algebra as any, given that many devs don't usually write a lot of raw SQL themselves.
When you look at the ORM and query builder space, there are a lot of different solutions - you don't have to like them (for example, I don't generally like ORMs), but they definitely exist, and they have all sorts of capabilities for type-safety, composability, and so on.