Oh goodness :) OP has conceded the point, but you're still down to argue on the basis of what a person may or may not believe is the main strategy to handle serialization. I give up. You win, I guess.

Regards your other question(s), I will just add that I answered many similar questions for myself (as well as disabusing myself of a lot of misconceptions) by undertaking to get a basic understanding of Haskell.