I'm still doing my projects with LAMP technology. With my own framework with a 150 lines kernel, routed with FS, looking for the maximum simplicity as principle number one.
Postmodern web development lost the Doherty threshold.
I measure my page load in tenths of a millisecond. Average page generated in 1-9 milliseconds, including the tipical 2-6 simple SQL local queries.
SQL is fine.
SQL has been the state of the art for db queries for 40 years.
And it will continue to be when we all retire.