Why CSS absolute doesn't work with static parent?

Question

W3Schools says that

element with position: absolute is positioned relative to the nearest positioned ancestor. Where positioned element is one whose position is anything except static.

My question is why static elements are excluded? I know that I can set position: relative;left:0px;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px which is the same as position:static but IMO it looks like a workaround.

Answer 1

My question is why static elements are excluded?

Because otherwise absolute wouldn't be able to position with respect to anything other than the element's immediate parent.

I know that I can set position: relative;left:0px;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px

You don't need to explicitly set the distances. Just the position property will do.

Answer 2

Just position: relative will do.

This is a good thing, because otherwise the browser will have to apply calculations on every element instead of being able to take shorter routes for static positioning.

It also means you can have arbitrary containers, so long as they're static, and still have an element be positionable relative to the container of your choice.