i’m currently using this https://github.com/nlkl/Optional library to support properties that are missing from the json (and support partial updates). Maybe integrate this behaviour into servicestack?
ServiceStack.Text has no dependencies and can take on no dependencies. Have you tried using JsConfig<Option> Serialize/DeserializeFn to customise its behaviour?
Yes. And it’s working fine. It was more a feature request 
(without external dependencies) to support partial updates from a json string.
I don’t understand what this feature request is asking, but if you can put a clear concrete example on https://servicestack.uservoice.com/forums/176786-feature-requests we can keep a record of and measure interest in it. But note ServiceStack.Text is never going to take on 3rd Party dependencies.