For myself (primarily a web developer), my problems with SQL aren't rooted so much in the language syntax and nuances, but rather familiarity with the paradigm itself. I think SSC Journeyman illustrates that point when he talks about the idea of making SQL (something simple) more C#ish implying it would make it more difficult to be productive with.

Unfortunately, I can only slice my learning time pie into so many pieces so you have to balance what topics of study and experimentation will benefit your immediate project needs, long term career goals and overall personal interests. With so many languages and technologies we are required to know about, I think many of us (like myself) sadly just don't have enough time to become a master at many of them.

I have personally come down the side of "it's better to know a little about everything than to know everything about little". I feel it's more important to know something CAN be done rather than the mechanics of HOW to do it (that's what Google is for). The unfortunate side effect to that is that you frequently miss many of the tips and tricks that might lead you to make better designs and write more efficient SQL queries. I have frequently been surprised by the DBA's that I work with when they explain why they would have written the SQL code differently than I did.

So, in the final analysis, I guess you could say I'm pretty much language agnostic. I think SQL while different from C# or VB, is appropriate for the tool it interacts with. Had SQL been initially released with a C#ish syntax and someone proposed a simpler T-SQL like syntax, I suppose we'd be having a similar discussion about that.