How plists use xml wrong

gistfile1.txt

It goes: 

<dict>
  <key>key1</key>
  <string>val1</string>
  <key>key2</key>
  <string>val2</string>
</dict>

Which translate to 
{ 
  key1: "val1",
  key2: "val2"
}

But it's annoying to parse because the value is a sibling of the key, so you have to maintain state in knowing which line you're on.

It should be something like

<dict>
  <item key="key1">
    <string>val1</string>
  </item>
  <item key="key2">
    <string>val2</string>
  </item>
</dict>

Unless you REALLY REALLY need to be able to assign attributes to your key value, which I doubt.