i think the takeaway here is that the (100% subjective) design of their site benefited from (again, subjectively!) somebody that wasn't slavish to these sorts of prescriptives (although perhaps slavish to their own aesthetic, but whatever).

the reason startup websites look like the 'before' is because for whatever reason, everyone's told that there's this certain blue that projects confidence and whatever. the background is white and the text is #444 because of another mandate from heaven (h&fj) and so forth.

The reality is that while maybe black on 'weird textured background' may be technically harder to read than black on white, it's nonetheless legible. Somebody made the point that what really matters is whether this new site converts better. Whatever.

At some level, design is a matter of taste. They like their new site, you don't. Agree to disagree, but it's not like these things are 100% set in stone. I mean, everyone used to think fraktur was highly legible but something (tschichold?) eventually changed. Who knows.

It's all fashion (subjective).