Nothing is brighter, its actually all been tone down this afternoon.. Be sure you do a hard refresh to see all the changes as even the side panel has been toned down to a greyish as well as the menu bar. Definitely didn't make anything brighter lol.. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback after these changes so hopefully we are on our way to a good compromise that will make the majority feel better.  We still have lots more to do so please note this entire process across all modules to the finished stage will take time.