The syntax is not the interesting part for programming languages either. Programming languages now have better semantics - things like runtimes, concurrency, data encapsulation, etc. - in addition to better syntax. SQL is not a programming language, its semantics boil down to the relational model. Don't get me wrong, there is room for improvement in the syntax, I have plenty of gripes with it, I just don't agree that it is a fundamental problem. It's already super useful as it is.