See this older thread: Why jcr:created property is being changed in case of any activation?

The team believes this is not a RTE issue - but an output issue. Make sure you are setting the encoding properly.

I am checking with the team - I have never seen this use case of wanting to export spec chars in JSON before.

For this type of issue - please contact cust care - you may need a hotfix!

I am not sure the solution here is to change how experience fragment work. I recommend against changing that. Instead, check with customer care to see if this is a bug and may require a hotfix.

Thanks for posting.

If you requirement is to invoke a Servlet as opposed to an AEM Service, then write Java code from your custom step that can perform a GET operation on a servlet. How do I do a HTTP GET in Java? - Stack Overflow

You can use the Workflow API to work with payloads via a custom workflow step. You can get information such as the JCR path of the payload, etc. Furthermore - you can use other AEM APIs - like AssetManager API - to work with a given payload at the API level. To see a good example - see this - where ...

Yes - but why not implement a service (as opposed to a Servlet) then you can use @Reference annotation from within your custom step to invoke the Java logic.

Looks like you Sling Service Mapping may not have been configured properly. DId you use the Symbolic name of the OSGi bundle?As @Gaurav Behl mentions too - ensure that your system user has the correct permissions. I strongly recommend that you go through this HELPX Article. It will walk you through ...