Fett's old voice, 4 life! ;)
adywan, I read what you wrote and here's my 2 cents on the aesthetics of the Imperial TIE fighters:
Frankly, I like the rich, deep blue color (as seen in that shot where we get a horizontal view of the Executor and we see TIEs flying back and forth).
It's beautiful... I think the "everything is matte gray!" Empire color-scheme is so overdone, and it's not supported by the movies themselves (except ANH).
It is interesting though that since 1983, it seems like every portrayal of the TIEs outside the movies has been gray (apart from a couple of toys that were light blue/gray). It's become a brainbug.
Still, I'll take blue/gray over just plain gray anyday. I agree with "normalizing" the colors so they're the same from shot to shot, but not taking away the blue entirely or minimizing it to the point where it might as well be gray.
I don't think it's in any way "jarring" to continuity to "suddenly" have blue TIEs in the last two movies, or that they "look like crap." I'm not asking for the scenes to be blue saturated (I share your distaste for the screw ups of the 2004 editions). However I like the brilliant blue of the Executor fly-bys in ESB 1980. THAT is how they ought to look in the whole movie (regardless of how they are portrayed outside the movies or how the actual models looked).