I don't know where it comes from that .netters HAVE to use SP's and only SP's, to access the db. They CAN, just like VFP also can use them ... if appropriate ...They CAN... and around here it seems that they all DO. ;-) Surely it's appropriate to ask "why"? Especially when NET architects and gurus are quoted as saying that these sorts of topics are highly relevant for the future of NET, despite the thuggish attempts of some here to deny it and derail discussion.
"... 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