The underlying problem I see that Tailwind solves is component-izing a single idea. And that it doesn't get in the way with opinions like Bootstrap, et al. It does that pretty well. You can point to a single stack of code and say "this one thing is a navbar" and it's easy to know where to make changes. No searching, no stress.
What I haven't seen Tailwind do well on my projects is respond to change in the same way other methods would. I'm not saying it isn't possible, just that the several projects I've seen, it was a big pain.
A method I've been quite fond of to accomplish the same task, but remove the difficulties this author's other posts articulate, is to recreate the concept of a component in a single folder. Much like you would a Vue single-file component. If you read the "Components" heading here you'll get a good feel for it by looking at the folder/file structure:
* https://github.com/flyntwp/flynt#components
That same idea I've enabled in a framework/language-agnostic way with an NPM module I created (not public). It watches the folder, namespaces css/js like a single-file Vue component would (using a manifest name or defaults to the folder name). It's a freeing feeling to create a folder and just start coding sass and js without having to wire anything together. As it's auto-namespaced, sass files are very clean too, you can use generic naming like ".heading" without a problem.
This solution is nice because:
1. devs get the "one source of editing" in a single folder. Even image assets or your language's logic files.
2. Immense benefit with static analysis tools. Want to assert all your components have a readme.md? or generate docs from all component readmes? Sure.
3. it's performant, with vendor/tree-shaking and inheritance built in. Also parallel build execution of all components.
4. it's agnostic to language/frameworks. Include any linters or unit tests you want.
5. is a paradigm shift from themes to components, just like Tailwind
6. No more wiring together components! specify a global like Vue or your favorite sass package, and all components can inherit it
7. Simple setup.. all you do is point to a folder of components, specify a dist folder, and you're done unless you want to modify specific behaviors
I'm curious if there are Tailwinders out there who could teach me if Tailwind solves other problems I'm not seeing. Or if this type of solution would be something I should open source. It ends up being a pretty simple Webpack file under the hood, and it has been an absolute dream to work with over the past year.