Yeah, JSON config format change wasn’t related to the rules, so I forgot to update this post. The rules config was made to be consistent with the other components.
That feature has been on my mind quite a few times. Currently there is no good way to “bind” device behavior back to OH items, since everything is primarily designed for widget-item bindings.
So this might be added in the future, but probably not soon. If there would be a possibility to add it as Labs feature with JSON config only (similar to Rules), that might be earlier.