You seem to take offense at the idea that you have to read something that someone else designed. How do you cope with books, magazines, presentations, signs, menus in restaurants, etc?
Calling this a “sad state of affairs” is pretty dramatic. You have to gaze upon things that aren’t in your preferred colors, oh my!
It's a sad state of affairs because it's a regression.
This was trivial for websites 15 years ago, but due to increasing complexity, it's no longer feasible. We've put more and more styling type things in JS, which really undermines web as a platform.
This is why CSS exists. This isn't some weirdo use case, this is THE use case. We're all losing the plot.
I mean, yes, that is a feature of css, but the idea that web pages are somehow obligated to use that feature or be ridiculed is silly. It’s all about how much the presenter wants to cater to the preferences of their audience. And sometimes, the answer is “not at all. the information is presented in a reasonable way and effort spent on formatting options is wasted.” This is why books are not usually offered in large print versions unless there is a compelling reason like a large portion of the target audience needing it.
I don't think they're obligated, I just don't think the software is very good.
Which is fine. Most software is shit, so they should feel right at home. I'm just not going to pretend that the current state of web applications is at all acceptable.
Calling this a “sad state of affairs” is pretty dramatic. You have to gaze upon things that aren’t in your preferred colors, oh my!