Soft delete doesn't work with like?

So would it be better to use only the Query Builder Class?

I think the idea was to have a few Model methods for some very frequently needed tasks related to basic CRUD operations. I don't know that these were intended to "look" or fully behave like Builder functions for implementing more complex CRUD ops. Looks like you're able to make it work so that's a good thing. If you can make it do what you need then why not use it?

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While we're talking about Model vs Builder, it might be smart to keep in mind that the Model's "write" functions (insert, update, etc) are more than simple wrappers around Builder methods of the same name, nor are they using
__call() "magic" to get to Builder methods. So make sure you understand what the core code is doing before trying to chain Model methods with Builder methods.