Your belief that you must use classes to apply CSS is false.
CSS is a generalization programming language, with specificity meant to be used for _exceptions_. Therefore, CSS should be used with general statements first, contextual statements next, utilitarian statements following, and then and only then exception-specific declaration in the edge cases they are needed.
Programming with CSS the way it was intended: Cascade, Inheritance, and then specificity, generally produces a quite DRY experience.
The one thing engineers/other programmers seem to have missed, continue to miss and seem intent on missing into the future is this: CSS is a static programming language that must account for being in and rendering dynamic contexts.
When I'm in JavaScript, I _depend_ on having the one thing, be the one thing, whenever I reach for it. I depend on immutability to keep my life sane.
When I'm in CSS, I _must_ account for flexibility, because I cannot predict the future, and I cannot predict all the various contexts in which my declaration might exist. Therefore, each CSS statement I create is based on how I would _like_ my thing to behave based upon a variety of circumstances, and to have static fallbacks when all else fails. My sanity is in producing the most responsive yet stable experience for the unknown.
Tersely, but without apology: Tailwind is for developers who do not want to take the time to learn CSS the same way they took time to learn JavaScript [or insert language of choice].
CSS is a generalization programming language, with specificity meant to be used for _exceptions_. Therefore, CSS should be used with general statements first, contextual statements next, utilitarian statements following, and then and only then exception-specific declaration in the edge cases they are needed.
Programming with CSS the way it was intended: Cascade, Inheritance, and then specificity, generally produces a quite DRY experience.
The one thing engineers/other programmers seem to have missed, continue to miss and seem intent on missing into the future is this: CSS is a static programming language that must account for being in and rendering dynamic contexts.
When I'm in JavaScript, I _depend_ on having the one thing, be the one thing, whenever I reach for it. I depend on immutability to keep my life sane.
When I'm in CSS, I _must_ account for flexibility, because I cannot predict the future, and I cannot predict all the various contexts in which my declaration might exist. Therefore, each CSS statement I create is based on how I would _like_ my thing to behave based upon a variety of circumstances, and to have static fallbacks when all else fails. My sanity is in producing the most responsive yet stable experience for the unknown.
Tersely, but without apology: Tailwind is for developers who do not want to take the time to learn CSS the same way they took time to learn JavaScript [or insert language of choice].