I don’t have much insight into htmx + Tailwind, since the last time I worked with Tailwind was like 8 months ago at my prior job - and even then I did very little styling work. With that said, it’s not really clear to me what the connection is between HATEOAS and Tailwind.
FWIW, for the app I’m working on currently, I’m outsourcing most of my styles to Bootstrap, while pushing hard for progressive enhancement via CSS hacks (for effects like expanding/collapsing menus and switching tabs). I’m using htmx when JS is enabled, and regular HTTP for when it’s disabled (the Django back-end renders partial or full pages based on request type). Bootstrap and htmx don’t really step on each other’s toes, and I don’t see why htmx + Tailwind to be different.
If in doubt, experiment!