[codedokode]

> I also find sites that do everything in rem/em more assessable as the padding also scales if they have a increased font size due to low vision.

If you use Ctrl +/Ctrl - for zoom, then everything scales proportionally regardless of whether you use pixels or rems. You are trying to solve the problem that has been already solved by Opera, and later by other browsers more than 10 years ago.

> Also, hardcoding things instead of using variables makes things harder to maintain.

In my experience, it is the opposite: simple code without implicit dependencies is better. Because the typical task would be to change one part of the page without affecting other parts. With a simple code, I would use DevTools to change the CSS rules and then I would move the changes manually into CSS file. But if the site uses some complicated framework with variables and rems, I will have to spend time learning it, see where is a variable defined, what can be affected if I change it, etc. It just takes more time and nobody of the devs will want to learn your custom-made CSS framework.

[extrapickles]

Using Zoom for reading is less ideal for long term use as it generally forces you to horizontally scroll, where as increasing font size reflows the page, so only vertical scrolling is needed.

[hollerith]

In Chrome, Ctrl +/Ctrl - reflows most text.

Like most things on the modern web, it is complicated. There seems to be a way, which I never noticed before HTML5 hit, for the web page to specify that certain text will not wrap, but rather will just run off the right edge of the viewport if the viewport is too narrow, but it is not in common use.