Mulling on the armor some more, it's not really
that bad an addition to Stark's armoire, but what makes me subconciously cringe at the sight of it isn't the presence of gold as the more prominent color.
It's the fact that
silver is starting to be used in the main color scheme for the armors as much as the gold is. The Mark 3's armor is nearly dichromatic, the only exceptions being the eyes and small pistons and connecting points in the armpits, the "collarbone", and the back of the knees.
In IM2, the Mark 6, in addition to the triangular RT, the "bicep" and kneecap plates were changed to
silver, which is the only part of that suit I couldn't get past (the RT shape at least has an in-story excuse, stupid, but explained).
In Avengers, the Mark 7's knee joints, elbow rotors, neck/shoulder collar, and HUGE thigh plates are silver. While the Mark 6's elements only slightly broke up the visual interplay between red and gold, the 7 is taking a sledge to it.
In this design, there's almost as much silver as gold, which muddles the already subdued warm tones of the gold and just makes the entire suit less vibrant. Blegh.