> What are the other solutions that are much faster?

Why ask the question, then

> (besides rolling your own mini format)

box it in?

Do you think I'm saying using an RPC is bad? I'm not. I simply took issue with the way the article was worded.

The thing about engineering is you don't want to do what some blogger says is best. You want to analyze YOUR particular needs and design your system from that. So, with every properly engineered solution there are trade-offs. You want easy? It may run slower. You want faster? You may have to roll your own.