[notpushkin]

> And what used to be relatively simple static layouts designed for a 4:3 screen are now layouts that must accommodate a screen of any arbitrary aspect ratio and physical size.

You should, yeah – it’s not inherent to CSS, though. For example on Android, your app can be ran on phone or tablet. I’d argue that the tools CSS provides for this are pretty easy to use.

> accomplished by switching random layout related properties on and off

You don’t have to, but it’s easier to understand usually.

For example, you can make a sidebar layout without @media (or @container) queries but you have to understand flexbox pretty well: https://every-layout.dev/layouts/sidebar/

(Personally, I’d just use an @container query here.)