I agree it's messed up but programming examples often are in order to convey some information. A css property is set at a context, for example body {color: bl

I agree it's messed up but programming examples often are in order to convey some information. A css property is set at a context, for example body {color: blue} div { color: green } #alert {color: red} https://codepen.io/bryanrasmussen/pen/PwNQyOm https://codepen.io/bryanrasmussen/pen/PwNQyOm this would be preferable to what was done variables because it is more straightforward. The dumb example of custom property using you highlight does not help make clearer code, nor does it help make css easier to understand, but I guess they were hoping people would see that custom properties inherit basically the same way that other properties inherit, except that there is this freaky :root context instead of using body. obviously things can be complicated because only some properties inherit, but the claim holds. CSS properties are set by context.