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I think "some code duplication" massively understates it. Being able to use named variables for colors is on its own enough of a win to make up for whatever truth there is in the "harder to train developers" downside. The many other wins make it a no-brainer.

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Agreed. One example would be that using named variables, particularly set with "default" values, makes white-labelling applications much simpler.

It's not the only downside to consider. http://adamsilver.io/articles/the-disadvantages-of-css-prepr...

There are a lot of advantages to them that need consideration too granted.

Certainly, everything has trade-offs, but CSS pre-processors are more heavily weighted toward the positive side of the trade-off calculation than pretty much anything else I can think of, especially in the "web technologies" space. I found lots of the arguments in the OP to ring true – things often feel far too fancy, and the more "boring" stuff has major appeal – but I found the arguments against CSS pre-processors there and in the article you linked very thin relative to my experience with them after years of using raw CSS.

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