Experts have been criticizing SQL since it was a proprietary IBM language. Take this typewritten rant from 1983 [0] as an example. And we've had better query languages for just as long, e.g. datalog. People really love SQL though, which I can only assume is because the vast majority of usecases are slight variations on SELECT * FROM table.

[0] https://courses.cs.duke.edu/spring03/cps216/papers/date-1983...