Also the biggest reason to use tailwind is apparently because naming css classes is hard...
The advantage of tailwind over a full design system is that it is piecemeal, you only pay for what you use. It really makes a lot of sense when combined with a component system like React because you get re-usability at the component level instead of the style level. I like this a lot, but it may not resonate with everyone.
Give me a picture of a dream website and I can easily write all the CSS and HTML to create it identically and responsively as I have done for years.
But give some general product description, and no amount of CSS knowledge will save the monstrosity I create
The idea of utility classes is super helpful.
I was actually pretty into tailwind at first for these reasons.
There were some issues, most of which were fixed with the JIT.
That said, most of the hate for tailwind is due to the 'community'. People saying to just take the best parts are the minority of opinions you see on tailwind.
Personally, I usually just look through component sites for something like I want, then modify it to my needs. 95% that works, sometimes I go build it out myself.
I'm fullstack, but more backend and that's where I'm most comfortable so the less I worry about design the better it is for my sanity, except I do like dabbling w/ the js layer in vue, alpine, or react.
All arguments I've seen are about consistency and maintainability.
OT: I often see someone make a dubious claim, someone else asks for proof, and they say "that's what I keep hearing on Twitter."
It's just another logical fallacy, especially since Twitter is known for bad and hot takes.
It doesn't support your argument the fact that you heard a random person on social media say something dubious.
/rant
It's like you can know how to unclog a toilet or change a faucet, you're no plumber, you don't know what a plumber does, but you can do enough for 80% of your needs, and when you can't you either call the plumber or you pick up a plumbing book or go to google/youtube.
I don't think you need to be a CSS expert to use tailwind, that's why I stuck w/ bootstrap for so long, but I also think you need to maybe think more about the underlying css so at least be willing to keep more CSS knowledge in your RAM or SwapFile in your brain, but there's things like daisy-ui that sort of wrap TW in bootstrap like niceties so you can kind of have both worlds, and come with nice themes to boot.
It's nice that some folks are using Tailwind to shortcut a need for more comprehensive learning, but let's not misrepresent that for one moment as being a fundamental purpose. The organising principle of Tailwind is to refactor styles at the abstraction level of on-page components, not supplying an off-the-shelf design system for front-end novices a la bootstrap/material design.
I don't think people who made css were webdevs at heart but typographists or artists, and as a result css feel unnecessary convoluted.
I also think the listed sentiments would not be strongly reflected in actual tailwind dev polls.
I find organising CSS files to be pretty hard, and I've been using it since 2001, predominantly as a backend dev who needed to churn out a decent enough front end. Tools like Compass, SASS, Bootstrap, LESS have helped with all of that. Tailwind is the best integrated version of all that tooling that I've worked with.