As an embedded sw dev working on things that interface with legacy devices, I have written lots and lots of binary parsers (as well as serial, net, and ipc prot

As an embedded sw dev working on things that interface with legacy devices, I have written lots and lots of binary parsers (as well as serial, net, and ipc protocols). I've also reversed some binary formats used by games, etc. I like binary formats for things that are simple and don't change too often. However, I still love not having to waste days on studying yet another bespoke binary format & parser for things that are complex and don't work right for whatever reason. So when performance isn't a concern and you aren't working in a size-constrained environment, I do find that "human readable" formats are often worth it. As a practical example, I recently hit a bug where KiCad moved some custom footprints' pad shapes around after saving & reloading. And I quickly discovered that the footprint files are just S-expressions and relatively self-descriptive so I fixed my issue in five minutes with vim without ever needing to look at docs or code. That kind of thing is super convenient. Later I discovered that other users are likewise working around the program's limitations using a text editor or custom scripts to manipulate things KiCad won't do for you; for example, to create a repetitive pattern of components in a layout more complicated than a grid.