Hey, one of the creators of Squadron here. Thanks for your feedback.
You can have JSON extensions if you like them, the tool ignores them. It can also be YAML if that's your thing.
The reason you need to configure a few files is because it's a generic tool designed for deploying all software, not just Node.js. But it gives you, IMO, great features like testing and automatic rollback built in once you've done this. If you have any ideas on how to de-duplicate any of what you mentioned, I'd love to hear them.
I've also fixed our homepage, because you're right, it was way out of date. Thanks again!