A JSON schema as the entire product

Anyone can publish a list as long as it targets a Superchain network and follows the spec, and consuming interfaces validate against it. The TypeScript utilities are convenience; the schema is the contract.

Designing a schema for open submission is different from designing one for your own data, because the schema is the only thing between the registry and a careless or malicious entry. Addresses have to be checksummed so a transposed character fails validation instead of resolving to nothing. chainId has to be restricted to actual Superchain networks rather than left as any integer. Decimals need bounds. Logo URIs need rules, because an unconstrained URI field is an image-loading vector on every interface rendering the list.

Versioning is the part that gets skipped and then hurts, because a consumer caching a list needs to know when the shape changed in a way that breaks their parser.

The line the README draws matters most: adding a token is not a claim about the token, and nothing is reviewed for quality, merits or soundness. A registry read as an endorsement becomes something people lobby into, and then it is not a registry.