I've used a lot of tools for writing "CSS" over the years: pure CSS, CSS modules, SASS, LESS, BEM,... I think when using Tailwind, you have to know the "real" CSS anyway, but the most important thing that Tailwind offers is the consistency.
So you need 1-unit padding? `p-1`. Double that? `p-2`. Still not enough? `p-3`. More? `p-4`. I don't have to think and do math in my head like 0.25rem, 0.5rem, 1rem,... and IMHO, it's a big enough win for me to keep using Tailwind CSS.
The features that were introduced in recent versions are just about supporting more CSS features to be more complete and not about feature-bloat.
So you need 1-unit padding? `p-1`. Double that? `p-2`. Still not enough? `p-3`. More? `p-4`. I don't have to think and do math in my head like 0.25rem, 0.5rem, 1rem,... and IMHO, it's a big enough win for me to keep using Tailwind CSS.
The features that were introduced in recent versions are just about supporting more CSS features to be more complete and not about feature-bloat.