> I rather have gaudy bright colors than all these pastels. Almost every "Not Ideal" look so much nicer and with character. She managed to make everything look

> I rather have gaudy bright colors than all these pastels. Almost every "Not Ideal" look so much nicer and with character. She managed to make everything look like a brochure at a children's hospital That's a great description that goes with my (conspiracy?) theory: Popular media intended for general consumption (which are the exampes the author shows) uses these colours not because they're better for comprehension, but because a big segment of the general public is afraid of data and charts, and these colours let the data fade away into the background for those folks. The point is to subtly say "it's okay if you don't get this data, this isn't really important" - a compromise between omitting the data altogether and giving it full importance and clarity.