I also happen to use the QBE for almost every query, at least for the basics and I agree that it is a real time savor. I was writing embedded DB2 SQL in my COBOL programs back in the early 80's. It was tedious and error prone and i used to dream of something like QBE. A lot of people simply prefer to just type the SQL. I don't know why but they do. The QBE has a huge downside and that is that it actually rewrites your SQL so be careful. It doesn't change the logic but it can sure turn a simple statement into a morass of parentheses and compound conditions. A way to prevent this is to never switch to QBE view once you've complicated the SQL. Then Access will leave your code alone because it doesn't have to reformat it so it can present it graphically. MS has lots of room for improvements. Yet it is far superior to the rudimentary tool available in SQL Server. I also prefer to use querydefs in Access rather than embedded SQL and that colors my opinion also.
The biggest syntax issue is the dots where Access SQL uses underscores. If you alias the table names, that should limit the changes required. Again, you are restricted to 1990's SQL because Access hasn't added any new feature to its SQL beyond Multi-value fields and Attachments which are not available in any other RDBMS.
I think we're about to see updates to QBE and they may be out in some channels already.