The highlight itself doesn't bother me; it just so happens that with my Aqualemon Xfce theme the rusty tab color comes off a bit loud. If I'd be using the Gnome Human theme it'd be totally fine.
Anyway we all have our own quirks about what we find distracting or irrelevant; if your particular neurosis gets in the way just recompile CL and patch it with colors recommended by your Feng-Shui guru
-- p