It is not egregiously gray on all devices. It is #575757 but is exacerbated by the choice of a lighter-than-normal font weight, so in that context it an odd cal

It is not egregiously gray on all devices. It is #575757 but is exacerbated by the choice of a lighter-than-normal font weight, so in that context it an odd call. You get a lot more variation between across screen densities and devices than most people account for when they make their favorite body font more stylish by reducing the weight. To say nothing of monitor color accuracy. I keep a mid-tier monitor with crappy colors at home to test things once in a while, and remind myself not everyone has an expensive laptop with a beautiful color-calibrated screen. Setting font weight to just 400 (up from 300) made it easier on my eyes on the two devices where it was a very faded gray (I checked on three). I disagree with the article's premises, and think a more correct analysis is along the lines of pfraze's comment, mixed in with unnouinceput's comment regarding time. Lacking experience in, training in, or predilection for, UX you can often still iterate toward a well-designed experience over time (and thus gain experience for the next situation). Being shuffled from one feature to another, or not being given context about the user, or the opportunity to develop UX skills (even incidentally within a project), leads to what seems like a lack of empathy, but is not.