Personally, I prefer the striping for the in-body tables, as I find it both substantially more aesthetically pleasing, and significantly easier to read and follow—with just lines, I often lose sync of which row corresponds to which, particularly in wider tables. That being said, I can understand the concern about zebra-striping inadvertently giving some rows more undue emphasis. Maybe the shading could be less heavy to reduce this concern, while also introducing lines if needed to preserve baseline contrast for a11y?

Maybe the shading could be less heavy to reduce this concern, while also introducing lines if needed to preserve baseline contrast for a11y?

Here's how it looks with:

---colour-background-accent: var(--light, #ccc) var(--dark, #333);
+--colour-background-accent: var(--light, #eee) var(--dark, #222);

Before

After

Actually, I think the original issue was my fault—#2691 changed --colour-background-accent from #eeeeee to #cccccc in light mode, to match the contrast under dark mode, which resulted in the change to the tables; @hugovk 's above proposal essentially reverts that change (though it in turn makes several admonitions much less visible, as well as link decorations which are particularly important for a11y).

What I would suggest is to meet in the middle with #dddddd for the light theme color, which matches the nominal contrast of the #222222 dark theme color; alternatively, we could split it out to --colour-background-accent-light at #111111/#eeeeee for tables and --colour-background-accent-strong at #333333/#cccccc for the others.

alternatively, we could split it out to --colour-background-accent-light at #111111/#eeeeee for tables and --colour-background-accent-strong at #333333/#cccccc for the others.

Yeah, good idea, please see PR #2740.