SQL persists because it's an interchange format, not just a programming language. It's one of the few programming languages you'll see embedded in other languages - and generating SQL from other languages is a common source of security bugs. You can't upgrade away from SQL without changing both ends of that connection.

You can write large programs in SQL, but it's generally considered good practice not to.

(I feel I ought to mention LINQ here, not to make any specific point but just to fanboy about it)

As to not repeat the same argument: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33704199

Plenty of people prefer language-integrated things like LINQ over SQL, although we can argue whether or not LINQ represents a kind of DSL.

SQL is a beast of a language and there's definitely room for improvement. Also it's not Turing complete

Somewhat pedantic argument: SQL is kinda dead. Sure, modern databases use upgraded dialects of it, but they are custom to each database and often incompatible with plain SQL. There are even many cases where modern databases don't support even standardized SQL constructs.

The easiest example of where databases and SQL part ways: UPSERT. It doesn't exist in standard SQL.

ref. https://jakewheat.github.io/sql-overview/sql-2016-foundation...