I would add that the 'serialization' to a RDBMS-schema cites as a negative is actually a huge positive for most systems. Modeling your data relationally, often in 3NF, usually differs from the in-memory/code objects in all but the most simple ORM class=table projects. Thinking deeply about how to persist data in a way that makes it flexible and useful as application needs change (i.e. the database outlives the applications(s)) has value in itself, not just a pointless cost.

I like being able to draw a hard line between application data structures, often ephemeral and/or optimized for particular tasks -- and the persisted, domain data which has meaning beyond a specific application use case.