Imagine how slow progress would be if for every different condition you had to either create a new query or alter an old one, with the latter potentially meaning you have to add new JOINs, adding weight to all other queries based off that string. It's very painful - I should know, this was my reality for a few months before implementing an ORM over the top.
If you want to abstract part of a common query, then do so. That is what views are for. Everyone trying to sell the world on ORMs always seems to make this mistake. You can't say "if you do things the worst possible way now, an ORM can help you!" and expect me to be excited. I don't do things the worst possible way, I already get the benefits you mention from my database.
