That's actually a nice lifehack. Much simplier than jq. Unfortunately, would be harder to make all kinds of logical conditions for which jq allows (even if not that intuitively).
It still feels like there must be something in between, some way to make queries with json more naturally, than with jq, yet with enough power.
jq is certainly a unique language, which makes it unfamiliar to work with. Intuitiveness and natural feeling comes when one has gotten familiar with it after a bit of practice and reading the manual, though. It's a very well thought-out language. A very nice design.
It might help to recognize how it's influenced by shell languages and XPath, if you're familiar with those.
Well, no arguing there, it is indeed. And I use it from time to time. However, it's not like I need a tool like that every day, and if I'm no using it for a week I usually need to "learn" it all over again.
It still feels like there must be something in between, some way to make queries with json more naturally, than with jq, yet with enough power.