Custom WP API endpoint NULL body data

I have solved the issue. It was unrelated to json / javascript / api.
It was a simple issue of tmp folder ownership. Since there were no errors spewing out by the php managing the request, I never noticed a PHP NOTICE saying to check permissions in temp folder as php was unable to upload the temp file there. And indeed, while the permissions were fine, the group ownership was not.

Sorry to have wasted everybody’s time. Thank you.