I've been experimenting with minimal highlighting using a theme I stole from jcs (mine (haskell, rust): http://imgur.com/jNgBHpn, his (c): https://i.imgur.com/PkNOjBZ.png) and I'm surprised how much I enjoy it.

edit: forgot to link to original post: https://lobste.rs/s/9ruzgw/screenshots_from_lobsters_users_2...

The dotfiles are linked in that post. It only really looks as pictured if you copy both the vim theme and the Xresources and use something that respects .Xresources like urxvt.