Story points seem to be a reaction to a process that doesn’t include the proper amount of time needed to actually make a proper estimate. They seem designed to obscure how long something will take to accomplish. I think people like this because estimating is really hard and obscuring is seen as the solution.

The alternative approach is to do more detailed estimates. In addition to any design work this can require time boxing a “spike” to better understand things. This approach works well for estimating but leaves the sprint uncommitted until the spikes are complete.