You can’t use inline css it’s not at all the same.
Inline css
1. Can’t use media queries (responsive design).
2. Gets you to specificity hell - you loose ability to cascade.
3. Does not follow any system or reuse of values.
4. Values can’t be centrally changed. Utility clases are still classes - when you change class value it changes everywhere where the class is used.
5. Its verbose. Utility classes can have multiple css rules.
Conceptually it might seem that inline css is similar but thats just feeling. Functional css (utility classes) are about composing classes with simpler (one purpose) behaviour together to create complex behaviour.