What's missing in CSS layout

I recently spent time asking for and reviewing feedback about CSS layout. I'm interested in learning more about pain points which developers face with layout in CSS, and what they're missing. For the first part, pain points, I went over the results of the 2025 State of CSS survey, and focused specifically on grid and flexbox, which are the topmost responses to the Layout Pain Points question. For the second part, what's missing, I ran a mini survey of my own on Mastodon, Bluesky, and LinkedIn, asking people what they were missing in CSS layout. Let's dive into my findings. CSS Grid pain points This is my interpretation of the free-form responses on Layout Pain Points - State of CSS 2025. Learning grid: Grid is perceived as hard to learn, non-intuitive, and verbose. Developers struggle to: Remember syntax (grid-template-*, shorthands, long property names, complex shorthands). Understand mental models (tracks, areas, implicit vs explicit grid, template areas vs columns/rows). Know which…