[takeda]

I wish saltstack would be more popular. It's so far the best one I used (I didn't use Puppet and CFEngine).

As for the second concern, you actually kind of can:

https://docs.saltproject.io/en/latest/ref/renderers/

yaml never bothered me, so I just used it, but you could use a different one. I suppose none of the ones from the list would make parent poster happy, but then one could write own renderer.

[takeda]

Came too late, so can't edit anymore, but here's an example of a custom renderer, that allows writing states using java properties format: https://github.com/saltstack/salt-contrib/blob/master/render...

[Jedd]

I agree - Saltstack felt like a significantly superior design, but alas the RHEL effect won out.