But the author of that page is not concerned with readability or accessibility. He just wants things to look cool and design-y. One piece of supporting evidence he cites is some random photo he took that doesn't contain #000000 black. That doesn't mean anything, it could be that it's over-exposed, or has poor contrast, or had some silly filter applied. This leads me to think that the author of that page doesn't know what he's talking about.

Right but the medium of a canvas isn't the same as an electronic screen.

What if you empower the user to control their device and use reasonable baselines that maximize legibility

16161d text on a background of fafafc is an 18:1 ratio, sufficient to meet WCAG AA criteria

Wow, I was searching for this exact link for more than a decade (!). I remember seeing it on HN when I was new here and couldn't find the article ever again. Thanks for sharing!