Unfortunately, as people write more and more convoluted html, and are using javascript techniques for laying out web pages and blogs, not just web applications -- it's becoming harder and harder to have the reading experience one wants, rather than the reading experience some designer fop thinks you should want -- for no good reason.

It started with Microsoft Frontpage setting the background to white without overriding the body text colour by default (so those that had a user stylsheet for reading white/light text on a dark background got zero contrast) -- and has been going steadily down hill from there.