Many Delphi apps back in those days were very lazily slapped together, with thin layers of code (or none) on top of whatever queries got the job done. There are performance issues, security issues, correctness issues (in terms of: does the app allow you to do some things that should not be allowed). There are also meta-level issues that came into play, as anything that did not fit into the out of the box patterns was so outrageously more expensive to develop that companies opted away from it, and in many cases UX suffered.
On the other hand, we have now overreacted in the opposite direction, with many business apps having empty layers of code that do nothing except pass on the exact same message to the next layer, because, well, "that's how it's done in the real world", or something. Tons of boilerplate code get created that never end up adding any real value. Other than this specific example, there are plenty of YAGNI violations.
I prefer something of a balance between the two.
The issues you state. Security, correctness and performance. None of these are solved by having more software. It might seem safer if you have more layers of shit between the user and the valuable data, but it isn't. Having a mental idea that now I use 'model and view' im going to be quicker, more correct or more secure I think demonstrably isn't true.
