I have a similar view to yours: as soon as you need variables, imports, functions or any other type of logic ... the existing "data-only" formats break down. Over time people either invent new configuration languages that enable logic (i.e. cue or jsonnet), or they try to bolt-in some limited version of these primitives into their configuration.
My personal take is that at some point you are better of just using a full programming langugage like TypeScript. We created TySON https://github.com/jetpack-io/tyson to experiment with that idea.
My personal take is that at some point you are better of just using a full programming langugage like TypeScript. We created TySON https://github.com/jetpack-io/tyson to experiment with that idea.