XML? how is this not just XML with a schema?
Maybe it's not fully XML compliant.
Anyway quite an interesting project, XML's a better fit for "programmable" data.
XML, for those born after 1990, you could have well said COBOL or FORTRAN, something gramps used to mention.
Does XML allow you to define for-loops inside <bracketed> items then reference the loop variables inside {{template vars}}? https://youtu.be/b9WDcFsKixo?t=223
I guess it doesn't prevent you from doing such things, but... well... there's some eyebrow-raising shoehorning in this one.