They’re speaking to entry-level people, who will not be designing bespoke solutions. SQL is exactly the right recommendation.
In the same way that VB was to front end developers 20 years ago.
Sure, the language that has underpinned data work for the last few decades and has relevance regardless of what shiny framework you put on top of it is just like VB twenty years ago. Good comparison.
Data engineering which pays well happens exactly where databases fail and you need bespoke solutions.