Don't get me wrong, both formats have their place. I personally find neither to be terribly difficult to read or write, but maybe that's just me. Having used XS

Don't get me wrong, both formats have their place. I personally find neither to be terribly difficult to read or write, but maybe that's just me. Having used XSD and JSON schema, XSD is a far more complete solution that takes advantage if XML's more sophisticated syntax. I'm not sure how you'd make JSON Schema more expressive without making it hideously difficult to use. I'm not advocating for universal XML use, nor am I advocating for universal JSON use. I'm advocating for standing back and asking yourself "what am I trying to accomplish?" then choosing the right tool for the job. As for protobuf: I've seen entire companies built on it. It's amazing what your engineers can do when they don't spend half their time twiddling bits or arguing about data formats. It's a godsend for embedded developers (like me), because JSON, XML, et al are non-starters in that space.