That answer would be a more convincing if the page itself wasn't a great demonstration of the opposite. I'm sure #554 with a spindly font looks great on a retina MacBook, but it's just not all that readable on most systems, especially for people with less than perfect vision.

I just don't get what issue designers have with contrast. You'd kind of think that the point of text is for it to be readable, not for it to look soothing.