Because classes are encapsulated data plus contracts over managing the object's state. If a class does not have control of its own data, then it cannot fulfill

Because classes are encapsulated data plus contracts over managing the object's state. If a class does not have control of its own data, then it cannot fulfill its contracts. Let's say I have a Motorcycle class with 2 Wheel members. What if in the code I assume 2 Wheels when writing the serializer? And then someone comes along, instantiates a Motorcycle and nukes a Wheel? The code will break. You can make an argument that OOP is not what you want, and instead create something akin to namespaces+data, and that's fine. But OOP's thing is to create a public API, and controlled state behind it.