I agree to a point, but I also think programmers aren't the best people to control the relational model, this needs to be done for them, it is pretty rare to find a programmer who truly understands the relational model.

I totally agree that getting LINQ to autogenerate queries is going to be a complete waste of time, in truth I looked at the entity framework and didn't read a lot into Linq. However, muddying the difference between OO and relational frameworks I think is completely necessary - to me, in a nut shell, programmers should use well defined objects whose methods are well understood relational transactions. The entity relationship model NEEDS mapping to the OO model, if that causes performance problems deal with the problems, but split the problem into three :

1) ER Model

2) ER - OO Mapping Model

3) Application access

Oh yeah, that'll be the three tier model won't it??? Same %$&£ different TLAs.

So, next problem - how to deal with performance issues in layer 2

I really don't see any other way forward, there's just so many advantages to organising stuff this way.