Unfortunately, jq is alien shit. It does incomprehensible things with impenetrable inputs, and yet it somehow still magically works.

When they can manage to turn down the alien dial to a number in the teens, maybe mere mortals could potentially dream of one day touching the code.

Until then, it's still alien shit -- from the future.

Have you {used/read about} jj[1] as an alternative?

[1] - https://github.com/tidwall/jj/