There's a long-standing request for Scribunto to provide library functions for JSON encoding and decoding.
The advantage of this would be improved interoperability with the growing number of extensions that use JSON (e.g. JsonConfig, Graph).
The disadvantages include: * People may store data in JSON blobs that must be parsed where a module using mw.loadData would be more appropriate. * People may write templates that attempt to bypass the normal MediaWiki parameter handling mechanism in favor of passing a JSON blob, which would likely lead to page wikitext that is harder for end users to understand.
So, let's discuss it: do the advantages outweigh the potential disadvantages? Are there additional advantages or disadvantages not yet mentioned?