I have designed/given internal SQL classes to business analysts, product managers and similar.
From simple selects using some common functions and basic types, to filtering, to aggregations and grouping and finally joins. That gets them about 80% there for the kind of information they want ad-hoc.
Only with joins did the people really struggle for some time.
In my opinion the distinguishing factor wasn't the language, but the peoples willingness to learn and ability to apply it in practice on a somewhat regular basis.
From simple selects using some common functions and basic types, to filtering, to aggregations and grouping and finally joins. That gets them about 80% there for the kind of information they want ad-hoc.
Only with joins did the people really struggle for some time.
In my opinion the distinguishing factor wasn't the language, but the peoples willingness to learn and ability to apply it in practice on a somewhat regular basis.