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The numbers describe the brightness, they can be useful if they're linked to UI usecases and if you're ok with limiting yourself to a prebuild color palette. It's just that functional names (btn-fg, btn-bg etc.) are better imo because they separate concerns. You could link them to a grayscale when prototyping and then later switch the colors in the stylesheet. It's also slower if you have to think about picking colors when coding.

The intention is that colors of the same number have a similar luminance, so you can easily adjust contrast and hue independently while designing. These schemes also keep a relatively consistent saturation profile across the palette.

It's the kind of thing professional designers do intentionally, but set up in a system that makes it easier to get a "designed" look without much effort.

I thought this immediately too but tailwind does allow you to use generic names too: https://tailwindcss.com/docs/customizing-colors#naming-your-...