A build step is absolutely my issue with Tailwind. Tailwind tries to ship with every single style you need, as a result it needs a build step to purge unused CSS. On the other hand, Tachyons CSS (which came out before Tailwind) provides 20% of the CSS for 80% of the utility and asks you to write your own CSS to cover anything else you need. As a result, it doesn't need a build step. I think that's the way. Tailwind is overengineered for what it is, and it requires buy-in into the npm ecosystem. Tachyons is a standalone collection of CSS styles.