[cryptonector]

> I don't understand why no one just copies SQL so I can write a query like "SELECT * FROM $json WHERE x>1".

You could ask the same with respect to XML too -- why XPath/XSLT instead of SQL?

The problem is that SQL isn't that convenient when you're querying data in a free-form and recursive schema. Especially the latter, because recursive queries in SQL are just not pithy. I say this as someone who loves SQL.