A white screen with high brightness can't be compared to white paper. If you have a bright lamp behind the white paper, you can begin to compare the problem. A white screen is fine for young people without any eye problems, when you get older and start having problems with the eyes, you might need to cut down on blue light to prolong the usage of your eyes depending on what problems you get. I have to use filters to remove blue light to not make my eyes worse.

That’s why I love redshift, I shove everything way over into the red and turn the gamma right down, I also killed the overhead lights in my office so it’s a comfortable quiet cave to work in.

> Do people also get annoyed at printed paper being white?

Printed paper glowing white would indeed be very annoying.

Passive displays, such as old non-backlit LCD or e-ink, can be white and not annoying. Most people don't want to stare into a light source more than necessary.

Using proper brightness helps, and dark mode can help even more.

What's the difference between a screen emitting X light as a primary light source and a sheet of paper emitting the same exact amount of light, as a secondary light source ?

The amount of light coming to your retina stays the same..

Just lower the brightness until it matches the amount of light reflected by a sheet of paper placed next to the screen.

If you can't read the paper, turn the lights on. Being in a dark room dilates your pupils which makes them even more sensible to bright light...

When reading in bright sunlight, the white paper can be excessively bright, and yes, I've wished for a dark page.

I agree that it is about matching the brightness of the monitor with the background.

I mostly use light mode, usually I can't get it bright enough during the day!

I will say my personal "Dev" computer uses dark modes though, I find at night with multiple monitors it's just too bright.