I've heard a... hypothesis... about how colors used to be used to maintain the social order - purple was super rare, and seeing someone wear purple was a magical experience. Caesar wore purple. Even if people rationally knew how the purple was made, it reinforced hierarchy on a subconscious level.

Maybe we're moving back to something like that. Only the special people wear vibrant colors, and vibrancy is absent everywhere else, so their elevated position is reinforced by the subconscious of anyone lower than them.