rgb(255,255,255) is the brightest color value you can have on the screen and colors like rgb(255,0,0) don't really pop against it because they're dark in comparison.
My problem with not using white is that even slightly-grayed whites take on very different tints depending on the display, so as much as I'd like to use it, I avoid it.
But, I do remember one of my drawing teachers at RISD telling us not to use the white charcoal sticks in our charcoal drawings (there the white is the weird unnatural element). And it's true, when I mixed in whites for highlights instead just erasing to the color of the paper, things started to feel weird.
I agree, white is a lot harder on the eyes. As an experiment I switched my kindle fire reading app to a white background and forgot about it. Two weeks later I realized I was reading for a noticeable shorter amount of time (lets' say average 20 mns per day as opposed to 1 hour + per day). I would pick up the reader, but I just would not be able to go for a long time.
rgb(255,255,255) is the brightest color value you can have on the screen and colors like rgb(255,0,0) don't really pop against it because they're dark in comparison.