Thank you for the great insight into the life of a clinical modeler.
Has nobody asked what modelers need to do their work?
It is clear to me that ADL is useful to you. Even with additional features added to the tools, ADL+text editor is the most flexible format. However mentioned search and replace using the semantics would be a great feature.
They say the user is king/queen. And when a queen says 
about JSON, we should stop pushing it 
Nobody is pushing developers to use a programming language they don’t like. Developers shouldn’t push the modelers either.
p.s.
I probably don’t know all the needed background information why some prefer JSON over ADL. I’m new at openEHR and unencumbered about the past. I just see the future 