Respectfully, if you're going to play the "I'm a back-end systems guy but I can learn this front-end JS stuff" card, you can't choke on some SQL queries.

We're all here stroking our gray beards about how kids these days don't even understand the tools they're using, and then you turn around and say "i dunno, the ORM handled it for me"?

SQL hasn't appreciably changed in 40 years. I'll take your word that you really know your C/Unix stuff, and I get that gamedev is it's own niche, but I'd expect most senior devs to have developed a rock-solid grasp of SQL just by osmosis over their years.

>>I can structure it as a traditional SQL relational database with proper indices if needed.

These sort of things are the reason I have to these days deal with programmers who show me their several thousands of lines of code and feel proud about it, until I show them it can done with a few SQL queries. Or that Java/Python program who proudly flaunts their few thousands of lines of code weekend project, which is basically a awk command that can be written under 3 minutes.

Only a few months back I was asked to review a backend application. The developer explained passionately how his massive structure of Java code plays with the store, which happens to be a key-value store, while the application is largely transactional in nature. Despite explaining to them why this isn't great idea even from an operations perspective, let alone conceptually or design wise they went ahead. Last time I checked they have to often deal with dirty read/write issues in case of temporary failure, and disk crashes apparently are common.

These sort of issues can be avoided if devs sit down and get basic exposure to things SQL, which by the can be done under a few weeks.

Honestly, I think your attitude towards this is incredibly dismissive. Hiring people with experience is good, but not if that experience is at the expense of some of the fundamentals. Imagine hiring a graphics programmer because they had 10 years experience in front end web development, only to find out they can’t write any shaders, don’t understand any of the theory, and you turned down someone with 5 years graphics programming experience to hire this person instead? Or perhaps more similarly, taking a backend web developer with a decades experience, and putting them in an engine developer role. Then on their first day they ask you why you only use ‘new’ sometimes.