media attribute in link tag

Why is media attribute written inside the link tag in html markup? Is it necessary to use media attribute in link tag to create a responsive website? Isn't CSS written using @media (max-width: 1100px) in a CSS file without writing the media attribute? Is it necessary to use @media (max-width: 1100px) in CSS file even after writing media attribute in link tag?

Comments

[Pacharapol Withayasakpunt]

I feel like it is equivalent to @media applied to the whole import statement in SCSS.

It's yet another way to do things without building the CSS first, like it comes from third party CDN.

I saw it used for

media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" 
media="(prefers-color-scheme: no-preference), (prefers-color-scheme: light)" 

[Robin Kartikeya Khatri]

Great