Yes, you right. Things like this one: join_date__date_ge => "-1 DAY" are too complicated for my eyes too!. And maybe this task must be solved in different way. Or removed at all, and queries like this must be executed straightforward.

The __date_ge was born as solution for this problem: in too many cases using just "field=value" insufficient, we need also "field<=value", "field > DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL value)" ans so on. But accepting plain SQL from user this way:
script.cgi?field=>5
is too insecure.

So, we still looking for more simple solution for this! And this is a main reason to post here.