I'll suggest two things: the idea, however misguided, of saving battery power on cellphones, and Quake II. Before dark mode became Dark Mode, gray type on black

I'll suggest two things: the idea, however misguided, of saving battery power on cellphones, and Quake II. Before dark mode became Dark Mode, gray type on black was a popular enough design aesthetic to inform the more functional implementations later on. Batteries have been insufficient for the entire smart phone era.