treyb
Yeah I also like @Capybara's presented idea too.
To me, Capy's idea makes perfect sense, infact I'm a little surprised it's not already a standard practice.
Now while I acknowledge your opinion that an extension would be needed to handle Capy's (imo) brilliant thematic effect idea, instead of being created by CSS. And maybe there's a good reason why you've mentioned this too, although I currently wouldn't know.
However in my (largely ignorant) opinion, I'm thinking: why not do both...
Since as far as I can tell, the CSS route provides immediately actionable results, while the extension route possibly provides eventual actionable results.
Therefore if we take both routes we gain an immediate temporary CSS solution + potentially also a proper extension solution at some stage later down the line.
What I'm saying is that taking both the CSS & the Extension routes simultaneously, this would provide us with options.