[dba-SQLServer] NULLs

On your first point, I think that you just don't have enough experience with
SQL Server and specifically with Profiler and query plans This tool is there
precisely because the query optimizer sometimes makes decisions that may at
first seem strange, but then you probe what it's doing and often that helps
you restructure a query for better performance. Lots of times, for reasons
that may not be initially apparent, the optimizer decides that it's quicker
to do a full table scan rather than an index scan and several bookmark
lookups. It is often the case that the design flaw is somewhere between the
chair and the keyboard. Further, the optimizer sometimes makes mistakes;
that's why there are HINTS, with which you can order the engine to use a
specific index when there are several possible choices.
On the second point, the recommendation comes from Oracle itself. That is
not to say that SQL Server works the same way. I just thought it interesting
and wanted to see what you all thought of it.

A.