[viach]

If you use JSON for configuration (as it should be), why not update the whole file and get change tracked in VCS? If you use it as a database, why not Mongo then?

[ellisv]

I've used JSON Patch via Kustomize to perform last mile changes for k8s manifests. For example, add `label=dev` to everything in this chart. Much easier to manage differences across the environments.

[oneeyedpigeon]

This approaches captures more semantic info. about what's actually changed than changes at the line/character level do.