If people are complaining about that, that’s dumb as hell. Yellow marks shouldn’t be ruining the immersion for anyone and if they are, that’s a brain problem, not a game problem.
People complain because in a corridor level with only one way forward, you reach an end with high walls and a ladder. Logically the ladder is the only way forward. But devs thinks you are too stupid for that so they mark it yellow. That's what irks people. The obviousness.
You are mixing two different things. Red barrels became norm partially as a joke. Using red key to open red doors is intuitive. Has nothing to do with treating players like idiots. Nobody likes being treated as one. Making obvious things too obvious is a bad game design choice.
Comments
"But it's a vocal minority"
Yeah, okay.
Here's a thread of someone complaining about it to me.
Fuck me, gaming has never been the same since DOOM used colored keys for colored doors.