[arghwhat]

Orange on gray is not great, but that's only the headlines, which are also much larger which takes care of the worst problems.

Based on those numbers it would appear to me that the main text is only slightly below perfect accessibility in the contrast department, so it shouldn't be a problem at all unless you have bigger problems.

[spzb]

The 4.5:1 ratio is a minimum not a perfect score.

[arghwhat]

The guidelines are for accessibility—minimum/recommended score would presumably be set so that someone with moderate vision disability would not at all be troubled.

That puts it way above what someone with good eyesight should need for comfortable reading.

I am mostly questioning it being hard to read, with good color/font rendering, for someone with good eyesight. Mine is pretty bad, and while ugly, it wasn't hard to read at all.