Trolled? You're the one who reduced DBA to not even a guitarist!

Well, what can I say, but what I said originally: there are DBAs who rule the data (the singers) and there are DBAs who don't (sound guys, roadies, drum techs, etc.). The notion that *no* DBA can be the singer is where the fundamental disagreement lies. Screen oriented apps (games, embedded, iStuff apps, and the like) have little need for a persistent, coherent data store.

However, for those apps which can/do use an RDBMS, then there is a fork in the development road: treat the data as un-normalized files (cater to the coders) or as Organic Normal Form™ data (put the logic with the data in the engine through DRI, etc.). The former is no different from COBOL/VSAM of the late 60s, while the latter isn't. I've been in the room when coders (COBOL/java as it happens) insist on "doing the transactions in the application". So, I'm not making this up. Those coders weren't going to give up their power over the application, as they saw it. The simple fact is that relying on the RDBMS engine to enforce data integrity reduces the amount of data on the server and (non-generated) code on the client. Coders see that as stealing from their rice bowl. And it is. So be it.

To put it starkly: if *your* DBA said to you, "I can show you how to eliminate 90% of LoC out in the application and reduce data footprint by 75% by using SS (or whatever) relationally", would you graciously say, "thanks". Or would you look for some excuse to keep writing code?