IOS 7 Extreme Eye Strain for "Older" People- Any Advice?

Hello- I'm a very very very long time Apple supporter (started with and Apple II+). Thus, I am in my 40s.

Upgraded to iOS 7 right when it was released. I really wish I hadn't done that. It really really hurts my eyes. All my 'older' friends are all complaining about the same. We use our phones a lot less because of it. Its exceptionally hard to read. Here is what we've found:

- Fonts way too light

- Too much white space resulting in an interface that is very very bright and hurts our eyes

- Too hard to read when outside

- Way too bright at night

- Text is too small

All this combined really hurts us 'old dude's' eyes. I mean it really really strains them.

We've all tried the following:

- Playing with brightness (up and down depending on conditions)

- Changing font to bold within accessibility

- Turning off the whizzy annimations

Any other advice to make it easier on the eyes? Is there any way AT ALL to go back to iOS 6? Sort of feel like Apple is controlling me a little too much by not allowing backwards movement in the OS. My phone is very hard to use these days and unfortunately, me and my buds are starting to look outside Apple products for the first time ever. Very very discouraging. I'm hoping they fix this.

Thanks!