std.json questions

[tired_eyes via Digitalmars-d-learn]

Hello, D community!

I'm pretty new to D and to compiled languages in general, and 
have primarily web background (PHP, JS), when JSON workflow is 
very organic. I was always sure that JSON is a simple thing, but 
std.json proves me wrong. So may I have a little advice from more 
experienced D folk?

Say, I have a simple JSON file:

{
     "entities" : [
         {
             "x" : 0,
             "y" : 0,
             "texture" : "box1"
         },
         {
             "x" : 100,
             "y" : 200,
             "texture" : "box2",
             "isControllable" : true
         }
     ]
}

First issue: what is the proper ("idiomatic") way to conver 
JSONValue to the proper types?

Second: what is the proper way of handling boolean values in JSON 
(how to convert JSON_TYPE.TRUE and JSON_TYPE.FALSE to bool)?

Righ now I'm doing is something like this:

string data = readText("file.json");
JSONValue[string] parsedData = parseJSON(data).object;
JSONValue[] etities = stateData["entities"].array;

foreach(e; entities) {
     int x = to!int(e["x"].integer);
     int y = to!int(e["y"].integer);
     string texture = stripExtension(e["texture"].str);

     auto isControllable = "isControllable" in e;

     if (isControllable !is null) {
         if (e["isControllable"].type == JSON_TYPE.TRUE) {
             isControllable = true;
         } else {
             isControllable = false;
         }
     }
}

I think this is ugly and clunky approach, what is the beautiful 
one?

A brief look at code.dlang.org gives us 7 (!) additional JSON 
libraries. Keeping in mind that D community isn't so huge, I 
think I'm not the only person struggling with std.json. Are there 
any plans on upgrading it?

Thank you in advance!