I'm not sure I agree.

In the AWS case the tools talk to an API server, so sure, you can call the API server directly or use a wrapper that does, but what about all the other CLI apps that don't? The CLI program is the API.

I built a CLI program that wraps luks + btrfs, and they only offer a `--json` output option for a few commands. I have to write an ad hoc parser for each command since raw text includes arbitrary formatting and presentation lipstick that the creator came up with. And I have to do extra work to avoid breaking changes at the parser level instead of the higher data level.

If I had to pick between the two, json would at least solve the data representation part so that I can build on top of it. And it's trivial to go data (json) -> pretty print rather than pretty print -> data.

I can see it being annoying if all you care about is using CLI programs by hand, but it seems like a mild upside compared to the downsides the second you want to consume it programmatically, even if it's with a chain of awk, cut, and tr.