You seem like the perfect person to ask: what is a format that is close to the (apparent)simplicity of CSV, but is actually consistent?
In other words, as soon as you start exchanging data, you'll get something that is complex, broken, or (most common case) both. Existence of a simple, consistent general format has not been conclusively proven impossible, but I have yet to see one in practice.
(Of course, everybody and their dog have cooked up simple data schemes, yes, but those are a) domain-specific, and b) not in widespread use.)