[Catalyst] What value does an ORM add?

[Steve Atkins]

Not intending to start any sort of rancorous discussion, but I was  
wondering whether someone could illuminate me a little?

I'm comfortable with SQL, and with DBI. I write basic SQL that runs  
just fine on all databases, or more complex SQL when I want to target  
a single database (ususally postgresql).

What value does an ORM add for a user like me?

Some ORMs provide a single interface to the underlying datastore, so  
allow you to cache information in the ORM, as long as you're the only  
app accessing the underlying datastore.

Higher level modules (authentication, say) can target the ORM API and  
not need to worry about database-specific details (although they  
usually use such simple SQL that they could get the same independence  
by using DBI directly it's still a decent implementation choice).

But that seems to be about it.

I know that I don't need to use an ORM with catalyst - I can use DBI  
perfectly well, or even a hybrid system where my code uses DBI and  
other modules use an ORM. But there's so much excitement about ORMs  
that I have to wonder whether I'm missing some big concept about  
them, and there's something they offer that makes development quicker  
even for someone fluent in SQL.

Anyone?

Cheers,
   Steve