If you had a hard time reading the stuff before sounds like you may need to change your contrast/color settings on your monitor...I agree that black on white sticks out better than blue on white, but the site is already a monochrome theme as it is. The blue links are just about all the color the site had, and when you remove that it makes everything very bland looking, and almost uninviting to an extent.
I like the blue better as well. And the new thanks and like buttons are weird. I guess it will just take some getting used to.
Edit: Didn't even realize how much information was shown now in regards to our name banners. That's a little overkill IMO. No need for all of that silliness.