Sorry, I don't know of a nice way to say it, but the as-delivered color schemes for Outlook 2010 are horrid.
All 3 of the colors are very difficult to read. What happened to the nice legible look of the demo? Is there a way to have button outlines for that good old "organized" look, or is the wave of the future this "floaty" look? I sure hope not. This looks look like it was lifted from a Mac.
Sorry to sound so negative, but this just seems like a big step backwards.
If anyone has something helpful I would appreciate it, but I'm guessing the answer is that this is just how it is.