[geezerjay]

> This will affect all of your styles.

Your example affects all div elements which are not styled. If you also include class and/or ID specific definitions then your padding setting doesn't cascade and those are not affected. That's the point of CSS.

> where you fight to style your local components

That's not true. Style changes do cascade but they only cascade where the designer intends them to cascade. If a designer specifies that all div components shall use the same padding then you can't complain that all div components are using the same padding.