It is the strongest oxidant that can be applied. To summarize disinfection processes, they result in oxidation in most cases. That is certainly an area for additional research. The industry was moving towards ozone because it appeared that it effectively killed crypto. However, this does not now appear to be the case.
Many people use hypochlorus acid.
Free chlorine hydrolyzes to hypochlorus acid. The strategy for minimizing DBPs is twofold. The first goal is to minimize the disinfectant that is applied initially. If the chlorine applied is minimized we could minimize disinfection. We now have regulations that help us do that.