[au-arms]

You can, however the lack of constraints on the spacing can make it difficult to match strict design systems. The dependence the spacing creates on the parent & child dimensions can lead to undesirable edge cases as well for dynamic/responsive content.

[kylemh]

The opposite would be the intent and the goal. Align design system language WITH your spacer components ensuring strict adherence. Layout components work and they don't have performance issues.

[au-arms]

I think we agree here. The argument I am making is that spacer components that introduce DOM bloat can negatively impact large apps, especially on low power devices.

A layout component does not have to introduce DOM bloat, it could apply layout directly via CSS to it's children. Layout components in this regard are incredibly helpful.