[masklinn]

That doesn't make this mess any saner, if the point was to apply XML tools to JSON, why not convert to an existing XML dialect with equivalent expressive power, e.g. XMLRPC's serialisation format (which provides a strict superset of JSON capabilities (if you include the nil extension))?

[duaneb]

The obvious problem being that you might not have control over the source of the data. JSONx means you can apply xml tools to json sources, period.

[masklinn]

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. The source of the data is irrelevant, XMLRPC w/ nil (and other pre-existing formats I'm sure) are strict supersets of JSON, any JSON document can be converted back and forth between XMLRPC and JSON without data loss. So XMLRPC (or something else with similar capabilities) would give you exactly the same ability to apply XML tools to "JSON sources".