Curly bracket languages don't require braces around every statement.

If C was written like

    {if {x == 1}{
      {return {x + 1};}
    }

Maybe you'd have a point

That's nice, but we're not talking about con, we're talking about json.

Also your syntax is terrible. There are already s-expression versions of c:

    (if (== x 1)
        (return (+ x 1)))