Thank you @algowhiz for reporting issues. It helps daisyUI a lot 💚
I'll be working on issues one by one. I will help with this one as soon as a I find a solution.
In the meantime providing more details and reproduction links would be helpful.

https://play.tailwindcss.com/8cZeWJ3aSo?file=css

You forget

  plugins: [require('daisyui')],

in the tailwind config.
Removing !important from your custom css changes nothing in the output.

not sure if this is the same thing you are running into, but looking at styled.css in the latest daisyui (4.12.14), you can see the following:

.table-zebra tr.active,
    .table-zebra tr.active:nth-child(even),
    .table-zebra-zebra tbody tr:nth-child(even) {
    --tw-bg-opacity: 1;
    background-color: var(--fallback-b3,oklch(var(--b3)/var(--tw-bg-opacity)))
}

if you add the table-zebra-zebra class, do you get the striping you expect?

I realize this is a workaround, but I was looking into something similar in my project and came across this...

Hope this helps,
Mike

You can reply with the following message to address the issue constructively:

Thank you, @AerisG222, @euglv for your input and assistance!

I appreciate the suggestions. Here’s an update and clarification:

I’ve ensured that plugins: [require('daisyui')], is included in the Tailwind config, and that does resolve the issue with daisyUI not initializing correctly.
I also tried adding the .table-zebra-zebra class as you suggested, @AerisG222. It does help apply the striping correctly. However, the .table-zebra class alone should ideally handle this without needing additional classes.
Given the complexity caused by custom colors, I’ll explore applying the custom CSS with !important as a temporary fix for my project.