We programmers also complain a lot about YAML, though maybe not enough and not as much as about Excel. But some YAML footguns like the country code for Norway being interpreted as a boolean are reasonably famous, and I think widely regarded as a bad idea.
To be fair, there are few things programmers don't complain about. But YAML still seems to be very popular as a configuration format for new tools, e.g. CI services.
And you have to choose between readability and whitespace. Doesn't matter for most usecases, but you can't blindly write it out. You have to choose ahead of time:
1. Potentially shoot yourself in the foot with tons of extra whitespace.
2. Unreadable mess.
TOML is better. You can choose whitespace if you want, but you can always go back to dot notation. Though I (sadly) agree JSON is better than YAML. One of the few times I've changed my mind from A to B and then back to A in tech.
