I mean I remember using XML for serialization back in the day and how it made we want to kill anyone who was involved in its creation. JSON won because it’s a great and simple standard and yes because it maps 1:1 to js. It was very popular with people who hated js when it came out too - just because of how much better it was than the other options
I think the move from XML to JSON mirrored a lot of the overall switch in the software industry at large from unnecessarily overly complicated "design-by-committee" specs to simple, get-shit-done practicality. (Heck, anyone remember the horror that was the original EJB spec, or god forbid, CORBA?) The rise in scripting languages like Python and JS on the backend is another example of this.
And I see this obsession in some people in the industry trying to prematurely optimize every drop in their code, but they don't understand the added complexity results in inefficiency (mostly lost improvement potential) in the long-term.
I mean I remember using XML for serialization back in the day and how it made we want to kill anyone who was involved in its creation. JSON won because it’s a great and simple standard and yes because it maps 1:1 to js. It was very popular with people who hated js when it came out too - just because of how much better it was than the other options