Any time I read data from a back-end, I use a SELECT.As opposed to what? ;-)
FWIW, Seek and/or set relation are still extremely useful for moderately sized static lookups. Rather than doing a join at the server to display (for example) full names of States, you can pull the raw data and use a SET RELATION to display the correct State title at the client.
"... 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