I agree with this. I'm in the middle of writing an internal web application using CGI::Application and I succumbed to the temptation of mapping my database tables directly to user functions 'to save time'. It worked OK at first, while I was still in the simple prototype stage, but I am starting to feel the pain now, as my customers happily suggest changes. Because I don't have a very thick layer of abstraction between my user's domain and the database domain, I am finding it very painful to make changes that affect the structure of my database tables, and those modifications create ripples which threaten to destroy my application.

Besides, you pretty much have to agree with someone who can correctly spell 'abrogate' and use it effectively in a sentence.