playframework/Play20 — comment on commit 63448578b15dcc7bf4806878c7b3aa4c74193af6
File: framework/play/src/main/scala/play/api/JSON.scala line 38
By erwan:

Well, the idea is to be able to chain easily when you know where you're getting the info, e.g.:
"response" \ "user" \ "name" as[String]
If we put it in JsObject, you need to pattern match to get it from JsValue all the way down.

Anyway, we can definately improve it.