I still don't understand why we can't just use ids and classes? It seems to have the exact same effect...

Well, the lesson is called Selectors - Beyond the Basics, which is why they would have used attribute selectors instead here. You can us a class or id, but that would defeat the purpose of the course.

There are some situations in the wild you'll run into as a developer where an attribute selector makes sense. Usually not, but it's good to have such knowledge in your toolbox, when the situation arises.

Sometimes you may be working within an ecosystem where you can't change the html markup, or its incredibly difficult to, as so an attribute selector can be a great option. Other times it may be challenging, if not impossible to predict all the elements you want to target with a class, and again, the attribute selector can be a good option.

I know in the lessons it seem so easy to add a class, why can't we add a class. But for simplicity, the lessons have boiled away all of the other complexities that will exist when you're coding in the wild, thus the reason for attribute selectors.

And attribute selectors do work, they're just quite picky, so if didn't work for you before, the selector you were trying to use was incorrect and did not match the element you were intending to target.

I just want to add that attribute selector of id has a degree of specificity lower than #id selector.