I often find myself wishing for CSS widgets, so to speak. A reusable component of HTML and CSS that can be inserted without inheriting anything from the parent elements. You can achieve this if you take a lot of care, but it should be a lot easier than it is.

But where CSS really falls apart is in layouts. What is just a simple equation in a native application ends up being a myriad of hacks to get things flowing right in CSS. Javascript comes with the missing pieces, but introduces its own set of problems if you try to rely on it.

> the difficult of writing core graphics methods for every bevel, rounded corner, gradient etc has a lot of developers just using cut images for everything.

On iOS, the QuartzCore framework provides declarative methods for those common style choices (rounded corners, gradients, etc.).