Whats the point of a list of tuples? Order? Json seems more immediately obvious and consistent in this case ie [{a:b},...]

It's not a list of tuples, it's a list of dictionaries.

Ah, but my confusion just deepens my point, haha.

It's mostly a question of what you're familiar with. JSON using [] and {} to denoting list vs dict isn't fundamentally easier than "-" and a prefix-less list of key:value pairs. YAML has a bunch of extra complexity, but IMHO this difference is really not it.

From a syntax standpoint parenthesis are extremely more clear than prefixes+whitespace (maybe less readable).