It depends upon the application, He is right and you also are right for the feilds of programming and applications you do, gets down to pro's and cons of types of interface to the database depending upon the application at hand. We all know the variations of those. Though perhaps could of been toned right. You are just going to argue over differing types of application without saying which type.

In short you are both right, applications and also use of said applications and requirments make the difference as to what interface is best. Don't need to argue over that without even stating it. You both win, this is the internet - now laugh :).