All the binary JSON schemes, like CBOR for example, are all about making encoding and decoding faster. So the world kinda wants this even if you don't.
Do I want protobufs replacing JSON? No. I want flatbufs augmenting JSON (and XML, and ...).
I maintain an ASN.1 compiler and run-time that supports transliteration of DER to JSON. This is possible because the syntax/schema language/IDL and the encoding rules are separable. This is how you get the best of both worlds. You can use optimized binary encoding rules for interchange but convert to/from JSON/XML/whatever as needed for inspection.
