The bigger the design team the more useful it is to have documented design system in Figma or other tool. The smaller/more technical the team is the more acceptable it is to simply to refer to the code base as the source of truth for components.

that makes sense :)

To add to @andy 's point, a good design system is as much about how and why the team does things in certain ways, which is still useful for personal projects, especially if you are dipping in and out of them.

I've made them for personal projects I've abandoned lol oop But for every day work, I think design systems are important.. But there needs to be balance. I've seen people try to systemize everything which I think misses the point sometimes (c)

I've also seen people complain that DS ruins peoples' capacity to be creative which I think misses a different point. I guess the conclusion is: there's a time and place for DS (d)

that's a good point for sure