Then part of me feels like CSS shouldn't do the stuck thing at all. That's a job for scripting. There are unlimited behaviours like this you could try to accoun

Then part of me feels like CSS shouldn't do the stuck thing at all. That's a job for scripting. There are unlimited behaviours like this you could try to account for declaratively but some JS will do it nicely. The thing about adding this to CSS is you are making CSS more complex with redraw loops as it needs to keep reconfiguring stuff as it gazes into thousands of it's own navels.