LINQPad is awesome and EF Core is just this good so I can see why some would just choose not to deal with SQL.

With that said, this still sounds like a strange situation - most colleagues, acquaintances and people I consulted know they way around SQL and dropping down to 'dbset.FromSql($"SELECT {...' is very commonplace out of the need to use sprocs, views or have tighter control over the query.

I had not updated LINQPad in a while and just saw the price this year. Eeesh. I now live in a .NET Interactive (Jupyter like) environment.