i know it’s probably not meant to be, but can i theoretically just backup to the var/lib/openhab/ folder and copy the entire jsondb folder there as a backup?
Does this mean that if my sd card breaks I can simply copy the contents of jsondb over or am I wrong?
The backup script saves the following folders:
/var/lib/openhab
/etc/openhab
If you install from scratch and copy back those two folders, openhab will be fully functional with your data
I suggest you read the official openHABian docs on Availability & Backup.
Current openHABian is providing all the solutions you will need for reliable operations.