In some cases true. In my case, I don’t allow keys to come and go: they’re always defined. The JSON schemas validate that. But I use null to describe “there is

In some cases true. In my case, I don’t allow keys to come and go: they’re always defined. The JSON schemas validate that. But I use null to describe “there is no value for this key yet” (such as dateDeleted). If I were to implement merge patching, maybe by turning on a flag in my given framework, I’d be in for a surprise about what my null values now mean (that the schema catches immediately and never makes it to prod.) I’m of two minds. I like how simple it is. But they’ve basically ignored a problem because the solution is complex. And so they’re hijacking a data type in a rather perilous way. Maybe they should have specified a magic string value that is treated as “DELETEME” ;)