Why does the theme's global link colour use :where() instead of a:not(.btn)?

The question: "These text hover color issues are getting annoying. Every Unyson+ build is getting it. What's the ultimate fix for this? Delete the code from the parent theme?"

Context

The parent theme coloured links with a:not(.btn) { color: var(--color-primary) } and a hover twin, a:not(.btn):hover, a:not(.btn):focus-visible. :not(.btn) counts as a class, so the resting rule weighed (0,1,1) and the hover rule (0,2,1). That beat almost every component that styled its own links: pagination (.page-numbers:hover, 0,2,0) kept a red label on a red fill on hover, footer links ignored the Footer → Link Color setting, and card titles that were meant to be a neutral heading colour came out in the brand colour. Each site then needed a per-case override.

Options considered

• Delete the rule. Plain links would lose their brand colour and fall back to the browser's blue, so every site would need it added back.
• Keep patching per component (extra classes, higher-specificity selectors, !important). This is what had been happening. It never ends, because every new component meets the same rule.
• Keep the rule, remove its weight. Write it as a:where(:not(.btn)) and a:where(:not(.btn):hover, :not(.btn):focus-visible). Both weigh (0,0,1), the same as a bare a. Plain links still get the brand colour, and any rule with a class wins.

Decision

Keep the rule, remove its weight. The global link colour is now a default that any classed rule can override, not a rule that overrides them.

Why

The rule's job is to give unstyled links a colour, and it should step aside for everything else. :where() says that directly, without a list of exceptions. It also brings back colours that had been silently ignored for a long time, such as the Footer Link Color setting and the Posts element's neutral titles. A site whose look depended on the old override needs one line in its child theme to keep it.