In an ORM, you will write include: ['posts'] in SQL, you will write join posts on p.authorId = a.id I would argue an ORM is more about getting the flat

In an ORM, you will write include: ['posts'] in SQL, you will write join posts on p.authorId = a.id I would argue an ORM is more about getting the flat structure of the result set into an hierarchical set of objects with more complex types.