Yes, wise words and completely relevant. But mostly, desktop apps run in environments that don't have the luxury of onsite DBAs and even the bigger companies we work with I wouldn't let the DBAs near our app databases. You are right in that I think we all expect data to become more valuable if more end points are able to connect to it and use it but I would still counsel carefully about the degree of abstraction. My motto is to keep reviewing both the need and structure and the business processes attached to the data. As long as both eyes are open to change then additional abstraction can be added as its needed. It isn't as traumatic as some think to post-apply.