There are at least two truisms about advice. One is that we often choose the source based on the advice we can expect to get. Lately, people have talked about the delineation of the different subforum groups, specifically modern vs traditional. Had you asked your question in the Traditional subforum, you would have gotten even more advice against the light colored hose and the fly plaid. But you didn't, and as a result, you got mixed advice, which pretty accurately reflects the mixed opinions on these two points amongst the larger membership.

I think the longer version of the story is that some of the sellers of kiltwear (and certainly many of those who rent the stuff) have skewed notions of what is proper to coincide with their own motives, specifically that white goes with everything and that more is more ( at least on the sales tape) so a plaid has to be better than no plaid. I think also that an essential part of connoisseurship is the element of learned arcana- the idea that your longer participation has led to superior knowledge- and the accompanying notion that badges of superior knowledge are frequently invisible to the newly initiated. Humans are a race of beings who distrust being able to go in and just buy the whole thing, especially those of us who can't afford to. We demand that element of having earned it- and that element of superiority. Frequently the antidote to easy availability ( for mere, common, indiscriminate money) is restraint. You are talking to a bunch of people who spend so much time thinking and discussing kilts that they have joined a special web forum dedicated to that purpose. Until we can get a secret handshake, we have to rely on things like a dislike of white hose.

Oh, and the second truism about advice? That anything free is worth what you paid for it.

Wear what you will and wear it proudly.