XML and JSON only started about 5 years apart (1996 vs. 2001). I think XML's adoption was more broad more quickly, so the gap felt a bit longer than that (XML w

XML and JSON only started about 5 years apart (1996 vs. 2001). I think XML's adoption was more broad more quickly, so the gap felt a bit longer than that (XML was a core part of my jobs from 1998-2007 and JSON ever since). I think more of what makes XML look so much older is the fact that so many new projects have been picking JSON over XML for 10-20 years now, and that's why younger folks have seen much more JSON than XML. My software engineering career started long before either, and I have used both extensively. While I don't think that it makes sense for most well established projects to switch, just as rewrites often don't make sense, I would almost always pick JSON for new projects. Your points are valid, but one part of the ergonomics that you didn't mention is that it's so much easier for humans to read and write JSON, thereby speeding up development, debugging, testing, etc.