Seems like that’s my point making excel calculations correctly is at least as hard as doing calculations with SQL.

If you get experienced db guy to do excel I bet he will do it correctly.

If you get “data jockey”, whatever tool he gets it will be a mess.

Maybe I’m misreading, but “not much harder than” implies SQL and Excel aren’t that hard to learn. “At least as hard as” implies both are similarly difficult.

I would say that yes they are similarly difficult.

Getting basic queries or basic calculations in spreadsheet a person can learn in couple hours.

Somewhere after that comes zone "proficient enough to shoot himself in the foot".

Then there is level of excel or SQL where without months of experience you simply don't know what is happening.