The author forgot to mention one the biggest functional benefits of XML which is interpolation: the ability to drop XML components into the middle of text, thereby allowing for markup and nesting of elements in text.
<tag>
This text node contains <magic>unicorns</magic> and <magic>fairy dust</magic>.
</tag>
There is (as far as I know) no sensible way to add the magic above in JSON or YAML.
<tag>
</tag>There is (as far as I know) no sensible way to add the magic above in JSON or YAML.