Meditated Spriting Boredom

[Terminal Devastation]

I don't quite think you're quite understanding what he is saying.

it's not backtracking on quality.
It's an attempt to increase the clarity and thus increase the quality of the sprite.

Now, if you don't want to restrain yourself to "Fewest colors possible" that's okay.

But more colors doesn't mean higher quality.
It's how you use them.

Using too many of similar shades tends to blur the sprite reducing readability... and contrast tends to help it.

If you happen to like the softer pallet however, I'd still recommend at least removing the redundant colors. And I don't mean suddenly turn the yellow to brown, just use a few browns, and maybe work on the blues. I can barely tell there is darker blue.