I consider ZODB as more like a framework for quickly building databases. ZODB developers (we've talked to many of them) consider upgrading objects as no-problem (because they have very well understood patterns for that) etc.

While that's ok for Zope/ZODB developers, it's not for an average user. We need to wrap it up to make easily usable, without requiring developers to read tons of documentation and "Design patterns" in advance!

And, obviously, some universal json query language is needed