I'm beginning to see the limitations of CSS for general designs and styles 

What's the next level above that for the Astro framework? 

(I can do some design in Figma and Photoshop, plugins welcome)

What do you mean by limitations and next level above CSS?

Generally, people build design systems  using atomic design - you design and build a reusable button or form element, and then you plug that in everywhere without writing more CSS

Generally, people build design systems  using atomic design - you design and build a reusable button or form element, and then you plug that in everywhere without writing more CSS

https://atomicdesign.bradfrost.com/chapter-2/

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