The easiest and simplest way is not the most secure way. Most of the beginner PHP tutorials show you something that technically works but should never ever be attempted on a real app. The problem is they do work so they get used with real users data.
> The easiest and simplest way is not the most secure way.
No, but the next simplest (using prepared statements) is. Why do you immediately jump to something so much more complicated and full of abstractions instead of the next simplest thing?