I guess the point is that I can take a generic json parser and point it at just about any JSON I get my hands on, and have close to no issues parsing it.

Want to do the same with csv? Good luck. Delimiter? Configurable. Encoding? Configurable. Misplaced comma? No parse in JSON, in csv: might still parse, but is now semantically incorrect and you possibly won’t know until it’s too late, depending on your parser. The list goes on.