Now write this in SQLAlchemy without strings, without concatenation, and let's see which provides you with more clarity.
No strings, and I get an actual expression object instance that I can, for example, store in a variable and reuse in any number of queries.
Second, how is it a black box? It is the particular query provider implementation that is a black box.
Third, there's absolutely no correlation between the amount of LINQ and success of a project.
Yes, I am aware. How is this relevant at all to the context of this thread?
The rest of your comment: You are simply wrong. A heavy use of LINQ is one of the surest sign that one needs to run from a project. It is almost always used and embraced by people who have no concept of the consequences, imagining that the conciseness of LINQ = programming goodness, when the opposite is generally true.