This line was highly distracting for me, "To make matters worse, the shell has been mostly left for dead by both academia and industry, considering it an unsalvageable piece of junk that needs to be replaced at the first opportunity."

Um, false?

Many people in industry use and love using the shell.

Please read, "In the beginning was the command line."

The shell is by far one of the most powerful and expressive tools we have. Yes, there are many ways in which it could be improved, but JSON? That's not it.