I too like the “white” themes. It seems like all the most successful websites use white backgrounds: Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Ebay, WordPress and so forth. Good web design and useability doesn’t change just because it is a blog theme. If the background isn’t white, and the fonts easy to read, then the design sucks as far as I’m concerned. I guess I’ve spent too many years reading books to think differently. How many books are printed on colored paper or white text on a black background?
I love the look and readability of https://salon.com/ and https://worldnetdaily.com/ even though I don’t much care for their content just because it is easy to read.
I wish I could find more WordPress themes with a white background and attractive fonts. I still haven’t seen one that I like very much.