This user's frustration is understandable, but the real problem isn't a missing color option. It's that the tool itself makes something as simple as restoring an inverse highlight feel like a hidden puzzle.
When you restart Excel, create a new workbook, and dig through theme settings only to find the same broken palette, the message is clear: this system wasn't built to adapt to you. You're left guessing whether the colors vanished due to a corrupted template, a sync glitch, or a theme file that silently overwrote your preferences. That's not a feature set; it's a maze. And the time you spend navigating it is time you could have spent actually working with your data.
This is where the gap between legacy tools and modern expectations becomes painfully visible. Traditional spreadsheets were designed around static grids and fixed formatting options. They assume you'll conform to what's available, not that the tool should conform to how you work. When something breaks, or simply doesn't appear as expected, the burden is entirely on you to reverse-engineer the problem. The user in this post tried the standard troubleshooting steps and still hit a wall. That's not a user error. It's a design limitation.
A better approach starts with a simple premise: your color palette should be yours to control, not a puzzle to debug. An AI-native spreadsheet doesn't hide its formatting logic behind layers of obscure menus. It surfaces what you need, when you need it, and it learns from your patterns. If a highlight color disappears, the system should flag it, offer to restore the default set, or suggest alternatives based on your recent choices. You shouldn't have to ask a forum for help to fix a theme.
The takeaway here is practical. If you find yourself spending more time fixing formatting than analyzing data, that's a sign to evaluate whether your current tool is working for you, or against you. Explore a solution where the interface adapts to your workflow, not the other way around. You deserve a spreadsheet that treats your time as the resource it is.