Yeah, the "slap around another 8px" part of that post made me actually wince, because it sounds like the author just kinda doesn't have a design system in place

Yeah, the "slap around another 8px" part of that post made me actually wince, because it sounds like the author just kinda doesn't have a design system in place at all. If every page is gonna have bespoke styling scattered all over the place, Tailwind isn't going to help you very much, no. If I'm given a design that specifies a margin of a different size than those we have defined in our style guide, I bounce it back for revision. If it all conforms to the style guide, it's easier to write, it's easier to maintain, and it just looks nicer.