This is about ActiveRecord, which tries very hard to convince you that a relational database works like objects in memory, especially when it comes to associations, saving etc. Hibernate is similar in that regard (although it at least enforces repositories, but you can still have surprises when it comes to when it loads associated tables). Both allow you to drop down to SQL but then you lose syntax checking / type safety and the conveniences of the library.
With something like jOOQ, the query language is basically SQL, just made type-safe. You write a query that maps to an SQL query 1:1 and then you map the results to whatever you need. No implicit saving, auto-loading of associations in the background etc.
So it's not about "people should use the SQL syntax instead of query builders", it's "people should write relational queries explicitly instead of relying on the framework to save and load stuff from the database when it deems it necessary". Your domain objects do not need to know that they're persisted and they don't need to carry a DB connection around at all times (looking at you, ActiveRecord).
With something like jOOQ, the query language is basically SQL, just made type-safe. You write a query that maps to an SQL query 1:1 and then you map the results to whatever you need. No implicit saving, auto-loading of associations in the background etc.
So it's not about "people should use the SQL syntax instead of query builders", it's "people should write relational queries explicitly instead of relying on the framework to save and load stuff from the database when it deems it necessary". Your domain objects do not need to know that they're persisted and they don't need to carry a DB connection around at all times (looking at you, ActiveRecord).