It really is. There are very few proper use-cases for eval.

For a long time the standard way of loading JSON was using eval.

Not that long, browsers implemented JSON.parse() back in 2009. JSON was only invented back in 2001 and took a while to become popular. It was a very short window more than a decade ago when eval made sense here.

Eval for json also lead to other security issues like XSSI.

Problem is, it took until around 2016 for IE6 to be fully dead, so people continued to justify these hacks for a long time. Horrifying times.

And why do we not anymore make use of it, but instead implemented separate JSON loading functionality in JavaScript? Can you think of any reasons beyond performance?

I'd be surprised if there is a performance benefit of processing json with eval(). Browsers optimize the heck out of JSON.

You are arguing against the opposite of what the comment you answered to said.

Why did you opt in for such a comment while a straight forward response without belittling tone would have achieved the same?

I actually gave it some thought. I had written the actual reason first, but I realized that the person I was responding to must know this, yet keeps arguing in that eval is just fine.

I would say they are arguing that in bad faith, so I wanted to enter a dialogue where they are either forced to agree, or more likely, not respond at all.