I don't think it's as much about authoring CSS faster - if your goal is to output a large amount of CSS you can just use a precompiler like SASS to amplify a shorthand into thousands and thousands of lines in a few seconds. We've got that covered.
What Descartes seems to be doing rather is allow you to build modular elements which don't require all that CSS to be output in the first place, while at the same time ALSO writing the styles that CSS can't reach, all in one spot.
My take is that if it can be written in CSS alone, that's best.
Descartes and other plugins are here to help you write the styles you _cant_ write with CSS alone.
What Descartes seems to be doing rather is allow you to build modular elements which don't require all that CSS to be output in the first place, while at the same time ALSO writing the styles that CSS can't reach, all in one spot.
My take is that if it can be written in CSS alone, that's best.
Descartes and other plugins are here to help you write the styles you _cant_ write with CSS alone.