By "base CSS" are you referring to using @apply? That's generally not recommended from what I understand, with componentization and reuse being preferred over most usages of @apply for this purpose.

I feel us programmers should be open to breaking rules in favor of convenience. I don't see an issue to why you can't use `p:not(:first-child) { margin-top: 12px; }` just because you're using Tailwind (that particular rule gives a margin to every paragraph except the first one which is usually needed in articles). The most productive programmers I have seen frequently disregarded best practices if it suited the situation.

You mean like this supported utility class `[&_p:not(:first-child)]:mt-[12px]`?

Re `@apply`, that's correct, per Adam Wathan himself[0]:

> Confession: The `apply` feature in Tailwind basically only exists to trick people who are put off by long lists of classes into trying the framework

> You should almost never use it

> Reuse your utility-littered HTML instead.

[0]: https://twitter.com/adamwathan/status/1226511611592085504

I tried to avoid using @apply but that makes creating variations (e.g. of button styles) REALLY hard — as your code is just littered with class names. Plus if you're adding :active :hover and :focus styles, you have to do it on ALL the variations on all of the pages. It's frustrating and takes a really long time.

I've moved to using @apply in a few generalized classes and I love it, since my class names like "btn" "btn-success" "btn-success-outline" describes what I want, and I can easily go in and change them.

I'm not creating a new component for every tiny thing, like a button or a link, just so I can avoid using @apply...

Tailwind is moderately useful but not the panacea people are looking for or they’re being told.

I style things normally in CSS with exceptions or one-offs that are styled in tailwind classes. Usually try to avoid those.

I think Tailwind only shines alongside a component system like React where you can just create a new Paragraph tag and reuse that. It makes me very happy because in the end there's way less code for me to read and understand, and changes are obvious, immediate and easy to do.