I have the same reaction as the author, although for perhaps a slightly different reason. XML has far less syntax than JSON, and strings are the default input.

I have the same reaction as the author, although for perhaps a slightly different reason. XML has far less syntax than JSON, and strings are the default input. So XML is better when you have large chunks of text want to add structure and meaning to abstract subcomponents, and want it to be human-readable. JSON is better when you need to organize lots of little pieces of data. Unfortunately, neither use case is typical. Usually it's a mix of both, and it's not worth using both formats so you have to pick just one.