Finally made an account to respond to this. I completely agree with your take on ORMs and learning SQL.
One thing that people get confused with about CoreData is treating it like an ORM; it is not. CoreData is an object persistence framework more in line with object databases than relational databases. The ability to use SQLite is just an implementation detail. It's like how Datomic can use a SQL db as a datastore however does not present data relationally.
When porting apps back and forth between Android and iOS, the biggest thing I miss on Android is CoreData. CoreData is exceptional at what it does and its a shame that more iOS education doesn't focus more on CoreData.
One thing that people get confused with about CoreData is treating it like an ORM; it is not. CoreData is an object persistence framework more in line with object databases than relational databases. The ability to use SQLite is just an implementation detail. It's like how Datomic can use a SQL db as a datastore however does not present data relationally.
When porting apps back and forth between Android and iOS, the biggest thing I miss on Android is CoreData. CoreData is exceptional at what it does and its a shame that more iOS education doesn't focus more on CoreData.