I'm aware, I was already years deep into Django when they released it. But since it doesn't expose GROUP BY (the aggregation API only covers a subset of the uses), when you need it you have to drop to raw SQL, in which case your query will not return a QuerySet anymore, breaking compatibility with the rest of the codebase, defeating the point of an ORM in the first place. An uphill battle.

We're getting closer to full support for custom/advanced queries with full queryset support. See the release notes for 1.8 expressions: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/ref/models/expressions...

The GROUP BY still isn't exposed directly, but neither are joins or subqueries. The rules that make up what should be included in the group by are fairly elaborate. However, writing custom expressions will now allow you to craft some pretty cool SQL, and allow the sub-expression to specify whether it should contribute to GROUP BY or not.

Disclaimer: I did a lot of the work for query expressions in 1.8. The ORM team is expanding, and people are actively working on bringing more powerful features to the ORM.

You can use a Meta.managed=False model and a Postgresql view and map your model to that view for custom SQL.

And just query from that model as normal.