[zdkl]

> in principle, treating those as complex object structures is the right way to go

I do not see this as a given. It's a matter of abstraction vs performance tradeoff and that is highly subjective. Unless you pioneer a new standard form for complex object notation this'll just end up back to a format flamewar.

(And if we go that way, I'd argue for s-exprs or -dare I say it- xml)