I found this site to hurt my eyes and left me with really bad after images. It's dusk here and I haven't turned the lights on yet, maybe that is why, but I really prefer mild contrast when reading or I end up having striped after images and floaters become very noticeable.

Maybe the nice looking sites aren't so bad, and people who disagree can just override the settings (very easy in browsers), like has been possible since windows 3.1.