Personally I use DAO within Access because you can manipulate schema, data, and Access objects within the same environment. I may use linked tables or pass-thru queries, depending on whether SQL or Access is more efficient at a particular task.

BTW nobody mentioned a design change that is required if you're using Autonumbers in an Access app - because Access returns the new ID right away, but SQL Identity values don't exist until AFTER the record is saved. There are lots of Access apps that rely on that "right away" behavior.