Subtle changes, bugs and feedback

I can understand that, but when you take the grey in the context of the whole page, it highlights that area that's grey, IMO.

Losing battle. Don't want to argue about it.

Like a lot of things in design, it's moot - you can't make a 100% case for it either way. It's also very hard to isolate, because there are so many factors, such as the user's display / resolution / screen brightness / browser fonts / what interfaces they're used to using / whether they're visually impaired / etc. etc.

So that was all very much IMHO. :)