I am not much of a philosopher and don’t have strong opinions about these things. I argue mostly from a utilitarian point of view. I think it is fair to say most people find shadcn useful hence its popularity. As to whether it is the “right” way to build/compose UI will depend on the context.

For the absence of design tokens for instance, shadcn is remarkably themable using the main css file.

Also, most people using it are probably prototyping or building a school project or something - most are not businesses making big bucks.

So from a utility point of view, it is great. The rest, I leave to the philosophers