I guess part of my point is that all database access should use disconnected datasets.I'm not disagreeing with you about disconnected datasets, especially since you used words like "typically" to avoid making unjustifiable absolute statements... ;-) but what if you need to access one of those big iron databases that can take a second or two to open a connection across a WAN? If you've tied yourself to just one way of doing everything, sometimes you can't meet new challenges.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1