That is exactly what we do. You can write a python tool in like a dozen lines to cast to and from. There is also a way to use one of the built in protobuf tool

That is exactly what we do. You can write a python tool in like a dozen lines to cast to and from. There is also a way to use one of the built in protobuf tools to do it but you also have to point at the proto files yourself. I think there are other advantages to text protocols besides debugging on the wire, namely ease of composing tools. Streams of text is extremely versatile and economic for many workflows. Of course you lose that ease once you start embedding binary data.