LOL, I love the way you describe that... "for the few that actually read the manual". That has basically been my experience as well, and the ones that complain the loudest are the ones that refuse to read and understand what is actually happening.
I've also run into a lot of people that loved it at first and then hated it when it first went into production because they didn't read the manual and didn't pay attention to what kind of queries they were actually generating.
I get the feeling that this is why there is often a lot of angst against it from the operations folks.
Hibernate is a microcosm of Java. If you read the manual things are fine, but it's not designed to be "wingable". It abstracts away enough of the DB that you need to understand the magic or you'll make massive blunders that haunt you later.
Given that maybe 10% of devs read the manual for anything after leaving school there's a lot of Java and Hibernate haters
I've also run into a lot of people that loved it at first and then hated it when it first went into production because they didn't read the manual and didn't pay attention to what kind of queries they were actually generating.
I get the feeling that this is why there is often a lot of angst against it from the operations folks.