Would I switch to a more computationally expensive format to save a few hours debugging? Probably not. Would I switch to a more computationally expensive forma

Would I switch to a more computationally expensive format to save a few hours debugging? Probably not. Would I switch to a more computationally expensive format to save a few hours debugging each time someone makes substantial changes to my application's message format? Very possibly. Would I switch to a more computationally expensive format to prevent bugs (the easier it is to view, or remember how to view, what your code is sending/receiving, the less likely it is that lazy people will skip bug-hunting/QA steps that would show it)? Almost certainly. Should you use a binary format if you're sending tons of data per second? Well, it depends. It's like microservices: if you have the tooling to make dealing with that format from the dev/debug/tracing side a breeze, go for it; using binary provides substantial savings, as you point out. If you don't have the tooling/time to make it as easy as text to introspect, and I mean that in the most absolute way, there might still be persuasive reasons to switch, but know that if you do, you are also buying a lot of "debuggability debt".