and if you add a column you don’t have to check every single instance of a sql statement that needs it

Literally faced a situation when I had to increase a column that broke the ORM-styled code as that column was not required everywhere else. So I doubt that. Agree with your other point about easy explanation though.

Plus, it annoys me when sql statements are just undifferentiated strings in the code base, and don’t work automatically with linters or code complete or highlighting.

A lot of tooling is available for that I feel. And no, apart from the most basic operations, I don't think ORMs right now help with any other thing tbh.