Exactly. This is a non-issue if you use @apply (as people should).
But with reusable components or unified design, you enter the @apply hell. At this point i could not see benefits of tailwind.
But there are other (better) options available in most circumstances. Tailwind actually have a pretty good write up here:
https://tailwindcss.com/docs/reusing-styles
That said, it’s easy to come up with a ‘gist’ like
> The semantic version is 8 × smaller, renders faster, and is easier to modify and extend.
but then underneath say you’re not minifying, and you’re not publishing the source code… it’s almost like the author had the conclusion before starting to experiment.