well basically virtually anything other than JSON that's actually designed to be configuration would be better for configuration. There's dozens of them. that is the problem: JSON parsers and generators are ubiquitous in the way that no single configuration format is. Right now, I can just use json in any language and get data between any language and any other language. If I use it for config I get the advantage of even being able to config across multiple languages that might be getting used in a single system if I have to. No proper configuration format has that level of mindshare and interoperation.