Design tokens are a methodology for expressing design decisions in a platform-agnostic way so that they can be shared across different disciplines, tools, and technologies. They help establish a common vocabulary across organisations.

The middle layer approach pushes designers to explicitly describe the component visual architecture and that translates to its better understanding.

Reuniting these two worlds can be conflicting: how do you name design tokens semantically if they have to make sense everywhere but also respond to the inner logic of individual components which are independently developed?

design systems emerged to facilitate easier development with premade components while ensuring that style remains consistent.

Designers want every part of the app interface and all the elements to have the same look and feel, and design tokens were created to help them achieve that outcome.