Unless I'm misunderstanding something, it's not rendering any views, it's returning queried data. I guess you could call the JSON a rendered view if you wanted

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, it's not rendering any views, it's returning queried data. I guess you could call the JSON a rendered view if you wanted to. Are you concerned about being coupled to the particular shape of the returned JSON? That seems valid to me, especially if you're not very fond of the schema. I wouldn't advocate for WP for anyone continually developing an evolving product, but for small business clients it's not bad. It's easy to use and familiar, which goes a long way.