The performance differences, between CSS styles applied from a JS file and a CSS file are very small on modern browsers, with JS being faster sometime.
JS files are cached.
Preprocessors are not fine, they complicate and slow down the development process.
Inlining CSS is not stupid, OP discusses the numerous advantages it brings...
There are problem causes that are very hard to address. E.g. alcohol consumption causing a lot of traffic accidents.
Or massive corporations, with huge lobbying budgets, releasing toxins in the environment. Toxins that cause no obvious harm, but kill a lot of bees or cause cancer in some humans after 20 years of exposure.
I've done some diving in the Black Sea and have stumbled upon a number of structures that looked like human-made artifacts. They are near the shore lines as they were before the end of the last glacial period. I'm personally 99% sure there was a somewhat advanced civilization at that time.
>> And the second is the huge export boosts from China in iron and steel. (alleged in the article to be below cost but there wasn't really any support for that argument.)
It's just a well known fact. The major iron and steel mills have 100K or so employees each. They receive billions of $ subsidies annually to save those people from unemployment and potential social unrest.