Close. People design for a wider variety of screens now. The wider variety of screens constrains the set of workable solutions more. There are also other effe

Close. People design for a wider variety of screens now. The wider variety of screens constrains the set of workable solutions more. There are also other effects. I've heard it said that Google scores site on readability (no medium grey text on light grey background), which is one more factor pushing people towards using colour schemes like those of big famous sites. (It may be true, it may be false, I don't know, I don't care, it doesn't even matter.) But I think the big factor is that nowadays, site builders aren't permitted to design for 1024×768 and let other sizes suck, so all the classes of designs that suck on some commonish devices have gone away.