Specify how and which data should be serialized to JSON Over the past few years JSON has become the standard of data interchange formats. Before JSON, XML was king. XML was great at modeling complex data but it is difficult to parse and is very verbose. JSON really took off when rich AJAX driven sites were introduced as it’s very lightweight. It is in a human readable format, quick to parse and its simple key/value representation cuts out all the verbosity of XML.
Reflection; use what you have typed already! Isn‘t it weird that we are type casting parameters and variables while you have already mentioned what type it should be?
Detaching a subdirectory into a separate GIT repository Working on a large project where the whole website is in a single GIT repository can be a real hassle. With the introduction of composer you might want to rethink the content of your repo.
Extbase is not the tool for everything As a consultant I have the opportunity to look into other peoples work. I'm hired to do technical scans, write the technical demands on new projects and keep an eye on it if they are taken into account. In these reviews I notice a lot that Extbase is (ab)used for everything. And I mean for everything.