> the major stumbling block has been how tailwind is mostly just css translated into its own hard-to-memorize lingo.

This is the only problem of tailwind, it relies on its own lingo, as all the OOCSS/BEM projects. When you involve semantics, you will always bring these kind of problems.

I covered this problem and I solved it with this approach http://minid.net/2019/04/07/the-css-utilitarian-methodology/