Are foreign keys really necessary in a database design?

Question

As far as I know, foreign keys (FK) are used to aid the programmer to manipulate data in the correct way. Suppose a programmer is actually doing this in the right manner alr

Answer 1

Is there a benefit to not having foreign keys? Unless you are using a crappy database, FKs aren't that hard to set up. So why would you have a policy of avoiding them? It's one thing to have a naming convention that says a column references another, it's another to know the database is actually verifying that relationship for you.