System

This is the XPS 15 9500 with the high resolution touchscreen (maybe that has something to do with it).

It's also worth noting that I have disabled HDR on my laptop.

Problem

Consistently in Windows, across various Chromium-based apps, colors are washed out.

Cause

The issue was definitely related to Chromium-based apps rendering within a certain color profile. Even though Windows renders the UI and everything else (including other apps) correctly, these certain apps render the color profile incorrectly.

Incorrect Solution (don't do this)

I found a lot of articles like this: https://superuser.com/questions/1483209/how-can-i-force-vscode-to-start-with-a-specific-argument-from-my-command-line

These sorts of solutions treat the issue on a per-app basis. This is the wrong way to handle it.

Correct Solution

The only color profile that was available by default on my XPS laptop was "14D0", but this profile was the problem.

You need to add and activate a different color profile in Windows.

1. Open color management

2. Click the "Advanced" tab

3. Click "Change system defaults"