I'm wondering what camp you're coming from? .. ;-)

Both!
Seriously though I've mostly worked as a developer for the last 8 years or so, and I've only recently taken up jobs as pure DBA gigs. But I've seen the damage an inconsiderate query can have on a production database too many times, hence the need for controlled access to a resource that if misused will affect not only this one instance but all the other users as well.

Michael