Three style variations shipped with a theme, of which one was used, and the other two were maintained for two years.
styles/
dark.json used on one section, via a block
style override — not the variation
high-contrast.json never selected
editorial.json never selected
what maintaining them cost: every new colour token, every
type scale change, and every review, three times.A style variation is a full alternative theme.json, so every design change has to be applied to each one or they drift into being broken alternatives. Two variations that nobody selects are worse than none, because they appear in the interface as options that will look wrong. Deleting them was uncontroversial once somebody asked whether they had ever been chosen.