Yeah, the idea of having a SQL standard is great. But in practice a "standard" is somewhat meaningless without rigorous compliance testing, and unfortunately SQL hasn't had this for 20 years [1]. But I'll take SQL over any of poor reinvention of relational algebra any day, so it's still better than the alternatives by far :).

[1] http://www.techrepublic.com/article/is-sql-a-standard-anymor...