I learned about "too much contrast" from a type designer that painted typefaces by hand. We were taught not to use pure black ink on white paper because it's a bit less legible than softer contrast.
I'm not sure why it's so controversial among digital designers.
The same person taught me that "optical alignment is often better than mathematical alignment" (which is why the bottom of curved letters often falls slightly below the baseline if you look closely).
>I'm not sure why it's so controversial among digital designers.
Assuming you're talking about the "Give me #000000 on #FFFFFF or give me death!" crowd, it's a kneejerk reaction to the cardinal sin of gray-on-gray content that is fucking impossible to read.
"Kneejerk" is a bit of a down-putting assumption, isn't it? There are many, MANY, reason why someone might disagree with the OP opinion on black and white.
I happened to have a few iOS apps where true black is an option (which is desirable on OLED to save battery). A perhaps less common concern is eInk whose dynamic range is quite limited and for which #000000/#FFFFFF greatly enhances readability.
I'm not sure why it's so controversial among digital designers.
The same person taught me that "optical alignment is often better than mathematical alignment" (which is why the bottom of curved letters often falls slightly below the baseline if you look closely).