Choosing an ORM strategy

I feel the notion of "ORM strategy" is fundamentally broken. The idea of an ORM is to allow your object model to match the program, and your data model to match your DB/data/etc. An ORM strategy feels like point missing, it is a tool to allow interaction with data, not the data model itself.

I have a brilliant ORM strategy: don't.

To the folks putting down ORMs: what is your alternative to solve the same problems? (A positive note would be nice.) For my work, using something with a Data Mapper strategy has been useful.