Why CSS Struggles: A Boundary Problem, Not a Power Problem

A developer opinion piece argues that CSS's reputation for unpredictability stems from poorly defined boundaries rather than any lack of capability. The author contends that common issues like specificity conflicts and styling entropy arise when CSS is asked to encode application state or business logic it was never meant to handle. When developers bypass CSS in favour of inline JavaScript styling, presentation logic becomes scattered across event handlers and component lifecycles, making it harder to maintain. The piece illustrates the difference with a toggle example, showing how keeping state in JavaScript while leaving presentation to CSS produces more legible, trustworthy code. The core argument is that CSS already has sufficient authority over presentation, layout, and rendering — it simply needs clearer boundaries to function reliably.