> [...] and for that purpose it's horrible because it maps very poorly to data structures in most programming language.

I disagree with you.

A XML file is, by definition, a [context-free grammar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context-free_grammar), the same type of grammars used to specify programming languages.

I will make it clearer with the examples below:

    /* a simple data structure */
    struct Point {
        int x;
        int y;
    };
    
    <point>
        <int name="x"></int>
        <int name="y"></int>
    </point>
    
    /* a recursive data structure */
    struct Person {
        std::string name;
        std::vector<Person> children;
    };
    
    <person>
        <string name="name"></string>
        <vector type="person">
    
            <person>
                <string name="name"></string>
                <vector type="person">
                </vector>
            </person>
    
            <person>
                <string name="name"></string>
                <vector type="person">
                </vector>
            </person>
    
        </vector>
    </person>

To me, it is immediate to see the correct data structure in both examples.

If I had to write the second one in JSON, for instance, I would lose the "template type-information" of the list (vector).