> I've worked for a number of the Fortune 10, banks, telcos etc.
Are you seriously claiming that the only production users of DBs are "Fortune 10, banks, telcos"?! Or are you claiming that because those guys do something a certain way, everyone else must also do it like that?! This is a weird variation of the Argument to Authority, and even more flawed than the original.
> Everyone has put some sort of middleware between their applications and databases.
Really? "Everyone"? Or are you just generalising the state of the entire industry based off of your limited experience with a small number of players in it?
> Your claim that no one is running databases on localhost
I made no such claim. I said it's "not the norm" and that it's "untenable", not that "no one does it". It doesn't matter that there are a few examples you've seen that do; they're not representative of the entire industry.
On the other hand, for the vast majority of the industry who run databases in production, my claims hold.
The vast majority of the industry, that does not include "Fortune 10, banks, telcos".
Everyone has put some sort of middleware between their applications and databases.
Your claim that no one is running databases on localhost is simply your ignorance.