Sure, docker-compose is great, but could we get similar functionality using just the tools that are built into CoreOS? Can we get automatic updates, too? Yes we can! 📦
If you're just reading configs then yeah, it's superior. If you're maintaining big complex configurations, possibly for multiple machines, you need something to reduce boilerplate. Jsonnet, nickel or nix are excellent here. So the best way is to use one of those, generate yaml, and deploy. Saves you a lot of headaches but it's one more moving thing in your pipeline which can break.
What is wrong with YAML for configuration? It is much more easy to read then say json.
If you're just reading configs then yeah, it's superior. If you're maintaining big complex configurations, possibly for multiple machines, you need something to reduce boilerplate. Jsonnet, nickel or nix are excellent here. So the best way is to use one of those, generate yaml, and deploy. Saves you a lot of headaches but it's one more moving thing in your pipeline which can break.
JSON was never meant for configuration.
YAML has a ton of footguns.