The other way of putting it is this: the database gives you the chance to express facts (propositions) about the world in the form of tuples in relations ("rows" in "tables".)
You can, naturally, also express facts any other way you like. Comments in this forum, scribbles on the bathroom walls, seven layers of JavaScript buried in 10 microservices.
But a relational DB gives you the tools to at least attempt the expression of those propositions in a way that makes them findable and provable later, with minimal pain, and by people across the organization, not just in one code base.
Doing it in code, your mileage may vary.
And just like in written or spoken language communication, we can express facts poorly or incorrectly in any medium.
It's just that the relational model gives us a tool and framework to help put discipline (and query flexibility) into that process. If we use the tool right, it helps us clarify our logic.
You can, naturally, also express facts any other way you like. Comments in this forum, scribbles on the bathroom walls, seven layers of JavaScript buried in 10 microservices.
But a relational DB gives you the tools to at least attempt the expression of those propositions in a way that makes them findable and provable later, with minimal pain, and by people across the organization, not just in one code base.
Doing it in code, your mileage may vary.
And just like in written or spoken language communication, we can express facts poorly or incorrectly in any medium.
It's just that the relational model gives us a tool and framework to help put discipline (and query flexibility) into that process. If we use the tool right, it helps us clarify our logic.