[zichy]

I get that the low contrast is by design. Everything is by design, since someone once thought about everything. I don't want to be a dick about it, but texts with low contrast are almost never a good idea.

[inetsee]

I agree with you but I would suggest that texts with thin fonts and low contrast are always a bad idea.

[zichy]

I agree on the thin fonts, but text with low contrast can sometimes be useful to indicate that an element is inactive or unused (e.g. <input disabled> in HTML).