The gp isn't talking about YAML in itself, they're talking about YAML as it's used by mainstream CI systems. Github Actions, for example, encodes conditionals,

The gp isn't talking about YAML in itself, they're talking about YAML as it's used by mainstream CI systems. Github Actions, for example, encodes conditionals, functions, and a whole lot of other language elements in its YAML format. To say it's "just a data format" is like saying XSLT is "just a markup language" because it's written in XML.