CSS is complex enough without giving alternative names to things.
One syntax is enough .
I do use them for margin, padding, inset.
Others I dislike a bit, for example I hate the one for background whenever things get complex. Others I don't like, but have become used to, for example the "flex" shorthand. I prefer separate flex-grow, flex-shrink and flex-basis properties.
Downside (and sometimes, intended upside!) to all of them is how they interact with inheritance and the cascade, i.e. accidentally overriding properties. OTOH it can prevent you from forgetting to override inherited properties.
Since the properties for which a shorthand exists often are closely related, this can be an upside.
The one in the article I still have to digest.
> As we worked through the details, we started to get excited. Suddenly new features for Flexbox and Grid that people have wanted for years had an obvious home. Things seemed to click together elegantly. New capabilities emerged: (1) Flexbox could gain a way to do dense packing. (2) Grid could gain the ability to turn off wrapping (3) Masonry layouts could now be triggered with a value for item-flow, and more…
Clearly, the answer is more standards!