diff --git a/packages/rrweb-snapshot/src/snapshot.ts b/packages/rrweb-snapshot/src/snapshot.ts
index d36294b8e0..59e6f351aa 100644
--- a/packages/rrweb-snapshot/src/snapshot.ts
+++ b/packages/rrweb-snapshot/src/snapshot.ts
@@ -557,26 +557,10 @@ function serializeTextNode(
   } else if (!blankTextNodes) {
     textContent = n.textContent;
     if (isStyle && textContent) {
-      // This branch is solely for the use of mutation
-      if (n.nextSibling || n.previousSibling) {
-        // This is not the only child of the stylesheet.
-        // We can't read all of the sheet's .cssRules and expect them
-        // to _only_ include the current rule(s) added by the text node.
-        // So we'll be conservative and keep textContent as-is.
-      } else if ((n.parentNode as HTMLStyleElement).sheet?.cssRules) {
-        try {
-          textContent = stringifyStylesheet(
-            (n.parentNode as HTMLStyleElement).sheet!,
-          );
-        } catch (err) {
-          console.warn(
-            `Cannot get CSS styles from text's parentNode. Error: ${
-              err as string
-            }`,
-            n,
-          );
-        }
-      }
+      // mutation only: we don't need to use stringifyStylesheet
+      // as a <style> text node mutation obliterates any previous
+      // programmatic rule manipulation (.insertRule etc.)
+      // so the current textContent represents the most up to date state
       textContent = absoluteToStylesheet(textContent, getHref());
     }
   }
diff --git a/packages/rrweb-snapshot/src/utils.ts b/packages/rrweb-snapshot/src/utils.ts
index 8db174a9d0..8b63da4773 100644
--- a/packages/rrweb-snapshot/src/utils.ts
+++ b/packages/rrweb-snapshot/src/utils.ts
@@ -93,6 +93,15 @@ export function escapeImportStatement(rule: CSSImportRule): string {
   return statement.join(' ') + ';';
 }
 
+/*
+ * serialize the css rules from the .sheet property
+ * for <link rel="stylesheet"> elements, this is the only way of getting the rules without a FETCH
+ * for <style> elements, this is less preferable to looking at childNodes[0].textContent
+ * (which will include vendor prefixed rules which may not be used or visible to the recorded browser,
+ * but which might be needed by the replayer browser)
+ * however, at snapshot time, we don't know whether the style element has suffered
+ * any programmatic manipulation prior to the snapshot, in which case the .sheet would be more up to date
+ */
 export function stringifyStylesheet(s: CSSStyleSheet): string | null {
   try {
     const rules = s.rules || s.cssRules;