I'm new to MVC.

I have read this short bit detailing three ways of dealing with the view model in MVC:

<http://geekswithblogs.net/michelotti/archive/2009/10/25/asp.net-mvc-view-model-patterns.aspx>

The gist of it seems to me that:

Method 1, pull an object out the database and use it as your view model. Quick and simple, but if you want data from multiple tables you're totally screwed (I can't think of a way around it without Method 2).

Method 2, create a class that has references to multiple objects, and use this as your view model. This way you can access everything you need. The article says that when views become complicated it breaks down due to impedance mismatch between domain/view model objects... I don't understand what this means. Googling impedance mismatch returned a lot of stuff, the gist of it being that you're representing database stuff using objects and stuff doesn't map across cleanly, but you'd presumably have this problem even with Method 1. Not sure what I am missing. Also seems to me that creating a class for each View to get the data you want isn't ideal from a maintenance point of view, not sure if you have a choice.

Method 3, I am still getting my head around it, but I don't quite understand why their checkbox example wouldn't work in method 2, if you added a bool addAdditional to your class that wasn't connected to the domain model.
Method 3 seems to say rather than return the domain stuff directly, just pull out the properties you specifically need, which I think is nicer but is gonna be harder to maintain since you'll need some big constructors that do `this.x = domain.x`, `this.y = domain.y` etc.

I don't understand the builder, specifically why the interface is used, but will keep working on it.

Edit: I just realised this isn't really a question, my question is, is my thinking correct?