I think both makes sense, different times/contexts require different solutions. Maybe when the project started, the idea was loosely defined, so being able to change large parts quickly are favored over ideal performance.
But as the idea and project cements itself, you start to see exactly where the biggest flaws are, and you might draw the conclusion that a lot of problems could be fixed at the ORM layer, so you opt for working on that.
Maybe it would have been obvious from the beginning, but chances are the people working on the codebase initially had a very different idea of what exactly is the ideal design, compared to later on in the lifetime of the project.
But as the idea and project cements itself, you start to see exactly where the biggest flaws are, and you might draw the conclusion that a lot of problems could be fixed at the ORM layer, so you opt for working on that.
Maybe it would have been obvious from the beginning, but chances are the people working on the codebase initially had a very different idea of what exactly is the ideal design, compared to later on in the lifetime of the project.