Colors are easily changed, and certainly expected to be changed for reach site; that really isn't relevant to the tech being present. And are you railing against flat design in general? This is another personal preference religious war that's been waged back and forth since the advent of digital design. Don't worry, the pendulum will undoubtedly swing back your way again in a few years.
Well, Material is already a bit of a compromise, it's not as radical as Microsoft's Metro (I know they don't call it that anymore). It uses physical metaphores and fake 3D, it's just very subtle at it.
