Not all grays are created equal. When you start out working with grays in a color palette, they are usually completely desaturated. These feel default, utilitarian, maybe a bit retro.
What if you were to mix a little hue in there? Saturate them a little? Take the shades of gray used in the Penpot UI; this has just a small percentage of the saturated hue in there and the hue is the same as you find in the highlighted accent details in the Penpot UI. The result: a dark mode that still has color living inside it, like you've turned the lights down, you've not turned the lights off completely.
Let's have a look at some other saturated gray palettes.
A blue gray: feels cold and corporate, utilitarian and modern.
A purple gray: a little warmer, more friendly, perhaps closer to colors in the natural world.
A yellow gray: are you old enough to remember the yellow, gray plastic of the CRT displays? Doesn't this palette give you a feel for retro computing or maybe the sepia of old films?
The color saturation in grays is just a little reminder of how just a little attention to detail and color can enhance and reinforce the feeling of your interface design.
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