I definitely can relate. In the light version, the background has now less color, it looks more washed out.
However, the author did improve the contrast when looking at the numbers. I ran the default text color through a contrast check and see this results (I hope I took the correct colors):
So this is likely better, but not as accessible as selenized. When looking at the writeup there was maybe a bit too much focus on equal color contrast vs raising the contrast in general? Regardless, this is a nice evolution, and the equal contrast approach combined with selenized higher contrast approach could make for the perfect combination.