Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a double-edged sword in my opinion. The Django ORM is among my favourite ORMs, but the abstraction (like any) can cause problems over time. At scale, poorly understood ORM-generated queries can be a real pain, especially if your team's SQL skills have atrophied due to over-reliance on the ORM. As an exercise, I'd possibly recommend reviewing your top 1-3 worst performing queries, tracking them back to the ORM…
> At scale People often overestimate how often the average website needs to worry about scale. And how easy it is to fix the times you come close.
Edited to say: as for the average website, I do completely agree. For the unique website that will scale as well, I likely would still 95/100 recommend the ORM, but my experience has taught me that there be some pain on the road.