Actually, performing loops and tests in other languages is much easier. T-SQL is not that great a language in regards to either performance or feature sets. T-SQL's main advantage is that it has a database system hooked up to it.
I don't think you should give up on loops and tests just because T-SQL is not that great a programming environment, unless you're really just not that interested in programming in general.
/opinion
No TSQL is not the best language for performing loops. But there are few scenarios in etl, where loops are the best algorithm to process data. The transformations after staging fore me are typical exercises of set-based processing.