Aaron Bertrand does not believe in the power of the infinite loop:
A short time ago a colleague had an issue with a Microsoft SQL Server stored procedure. They were using our recommended approach for batching updates, but there was a small problem with their code that led to the procedure “running forever.” I think we’ve all made a mistake like this at one point or another; here’s how I try to avoid the situation altogether.
The argument isn’t “don’t use WHILE loops” or “don’t use batching logic,” but instead to ensure that you have a break condition somewhere. It’s reasonable to ask for an end state before you begin processing something, after all.