High contrast vs. muted color themes

Are high-contrast themes like Modus “better” than the more muted vibes like Catppuccin, Tokyo Night, or my personal favorite, Gruvbox? I assumed there was a correct answer to this question, but of course reality is more complicated. The benefits of high-contrast themes are perhaps obvious. You can more easily see the letter shapes, especially when there’s a lot of ambient light or glare. That’s when I tend to reach for something like Modus. On the other hand, high-contrast themes can be fatiguing because you’re staring at brighter lights on the screen. They can also cause halation, where bright text looks like it’s glowing or bleeding into the surrounding background. Apparently this is even more common for people with astigmatism. Muted themes address those issues by reducing glare and brightness-driven fatigue. But if the contrast drops too low, or there’s too much ambient light bouncing off the screen, that’s a different sort of strain. I suppose the question comes down to what I’ll…