Especially with graphql being the new hotness I wonder if it's time to replace JSON with a binary format like Thrift. The old argument was that REST+JSON was simple and easy to debug but that goes out the window with GQL anyway.

JSON is just a terrible fit for GQL schemas. I regularly deal with metadata enum fields that are repeatedly serialized causing massive bloat. Sure it gets gzipped away, but you still have all those copies after decompression and parsing.