I can definitely see why Nathaniel created the file_system_resources extension (
http://ext.radiantcms.org/extensions/148-file-system-resources ). Often template changes correspond with css changes, and the two should committed to your source code management repository as one snapshot.
I need to integrate that into my workflow soon. So far I've just been using heroku db:pull/push, or sometimes pasting straight into the live ui from the layout that's working on dev. It's less critical when you're working on a fresh brochure site that's not yet published.