I’m finding not having the JSON in opening page is more reliable.
Yes, we think so, too. Thanks for that feedback 
The extra UI.VISION web link it generates and requires to open is a little annoying,
Just to clarify: The “shortcut html file” that it now generates is not required. We generate it to help first-time command line users with autostarting a macro. The shortcut HTML file simply includes an auto-generated command line to call ui.vision.html. For your automation pipeline I would recommend to use ui.vision.html file?macro=test... directly. You find some examples here: UI Automation Open-Source Selenium IDE plus additional features, iMacros alternative
The ui.vision.html file is exactly the same for every macro. So it needs to be generated only once.