In my experience, the only people actually alienated by a failure to strictly comply with WCAG's assumptions about color contrast are the ones who run random we

In my experience, the only people actually alienated by a failure to strictly comply with WCAG's assumptions about color contrast are the ones who run random websites through automated scanners and complain about the results. WCAG's rules allow some color combinations that are inaccessible (eg black text on a red background, which is not visible to people with protanopia) and disallow some color combinations that are fine. You really need to have actual humans with disabilities look at your website to find out if it works for them.