The problem of data changing shape can happen regardless, but with text you have the added danger of escaping characters and ambiguities. Not to mention there a

The problem of data changing shape can happen regardless, but with text you have the added danger of escaping characters and ambiguities. Not to mention there are ad-hoc text formats for each and every tool, which can change from one version to another. And you're right, PowerShell is far from perfect. I miss some of its design goals, not the whole thing.