Align divs/items around other resizeable (center) item

Align divs/items around other resizeable (center) item

I would like find out the most elegant actual way of aligning/sticking
more DIVs around another positioned item. (E.g. one resizeable center abs.
percentage positioned image and captions/others around it -with option to
distribute it, move it, offset it -px and percentage…)
Other way: is there still no convenient (or I am not aware of) CSS
property/method/approach which basically say to an item: jump to the flow,
look to the right/down… and move as far as you touch other better (same
z-index) fixed item in a way? (e.g. stick it to the left side of an image
div then move it to a bottom corner and then offset it 3% down) -i.e.
place/anchor frame centers to exact %position in a window(not fixed) and
flow others around? Without redundant boxes. Responsive. With or without
flex-box. Do I want too much after so many years of CSS? Are there not
better/more relative parameters between DIVs than float left/right (not
between parent and children)? CSS4 :)? Any opinions, ideas? Other people
around are not missing it?
It is more general question (of actual CSS possibilities, un/effective
approach) - I do not want complete code for next illustrative layout...