Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery

I've visited several control rooms that have new operator interface hardware but have mimicked the look and feel of their older generation HMIs. Does this make sense? Sure it may, in the short run, ease any transition issues the operators may have but does it really make sense to have black backgrounds and bright yellow process lines just because it was designed that way 15 years ago? Where should we draw the line in mimicking older generation look and feel?