I remember reading this essay when it first came out. To try and reword it using modern terms: The author wishes that programming languages had database persistence capabilities as 1st-class built-in syntax instead of cumbersome bolted-on API functions. Examples where database syntax (i.e. SQL syntax) is 1st-class without noisy syntax of function calls, without command strings in quotes, etc : - business languages li…
Such tools existed and were popular in 1990s: DBase, Clipper, FoxPro. They worked pretty well in their domain: data entry and report generation, with lightweight transaction processing and general computation. Then happened the internet and client-server architectures, and these do not map as neatly onto local, single-user, single-transaction tables.
Installing or moving the entire application and database to a new PC was as easy as "drag folder onto flash drive" -> "drag folder off of flash drive".
Instant loading, tiny file sizes, but it became too complicated for users when 64-bit windows pushed 16-bit usage into VMs.