It is not the case that every programmer has to know SQL (if it ever was).

Programming is now such a big field that plenty of people will go their whole careers without knowledge that's foundational for other programmers - whether it be SQL, linear algebra, memory management, distributed systems, ...

In a way, it's very cool. Instead of a single-dimensional "how good a programmer are you", we've got a multidimensional space. That, naturally, yields a lot more interesting corners, like, say, what could be invented by someone who knows a lot about databases and GPUs.

There are plenty of programming jobs that have no need for SQL, it's just easy to forget how broad the field is. There was never a need for SQL when I was programming microcontrollers, or DSP work in python/matlab

Granted, SQL is an extremely useful skill for programmers, but there are use cases (e.g. front-end dev) where it's not required.