Traditional WordPress styling tools have significant limitations when building complex, modern designs. Global styles provide consistency but no variation. Block style variations work well for simple cases but become unwieldy for complex scenarios.
Patterns solve layout problems but create maintenance nightmares by mixing content with styling. Every styled element gets individual overrides, making site-wide design changes impossible without editing every pattern instance.
The pattern approach breaks down for long-term maintenance because you can’t globally update the visual treatment – you’re stuck with per-instance styling that can’t be managed systematically.
Section styles aim to solve this by separating content structure from visual treatment, allowing you to apply coordinated styling to groups of blocks while maintaining the flexibility to change designs globally.