How advocate data semantics?

I’ve just finished reading Benjamin Young’s article JSON-LD: Building Meaningful Data APIs. It is the best introduction to JSON-LD so far.

However, to get some adoption from the bottom up this article is not exploring what big problem is this solving for an engineer that thinks he or she can just read or guess the keys. When I say bottom up I am thinking mainly about front-end engineers adopting this technology and then pushing it on their managers and architects. Company architects and engineering managers already understand the benefits of having controlled vocabularies for interoperability and logevity.

But frankly, is using JSON-LD solving a real problem for a front-end engineer or is it just adding an overhead to an already complex system? I don’t think the argument about decoupling and future updates is sound to most of the client developers.

Do not get me wrong, I love JSON-LD, and want it to be used. But I do not want to see another hypermedia-utopia.

We should solve a real problem for developers. Simplify complex computer systems and provide solutions and guidance. This is why GraphQL or Redux got the traction. Regardless of what we might think about the particular technology. These tools are solving a very painful, real everyday issue for front-end engineers.