> This means you can keep your palette of color, spacing, and other options fully enumerated in `globals.css` and elsewhere,

Why not use native css variables?

> Moreover, if you're working within a framework, such as Next.js, this minimization step automatically happens when you build, without even having to worry about whether it's happening

Again, if you are using plain css I don't think this is an issue. With any modern build system it will spit out css file for that build, right?

> After a long while, I concluded that, for me, Tailwind really is more efficient and maintainable and even more readable, but it definitely took quite a bit.

I think this sentence says it all: Any framework will be "more efficient and maintainable" once learned, even if "took quite a bit".

For tailwind I think it's an abstraction too far, but that's a decision we all do ourselves.