I don't think he really has any ulterior reason for viewing it in json. But JSON does increase legibility compared to the generic http://www.gaiaonline.com/chat/gsi/index.php?m=3004 where there's a bunch of control modifiers like SOH that appear to be gibberish on the page.
There's no real reason for viewing it in JSON, I had just been playing with something else in JSON when I remembered this method, and decided to try it again.