yvan vander sanden

When i send a color to a swatch with 3 (almost) equal values, the color palette is changed to greyscale. This is what the manual says:

A list of three numbers between 0. and 1. sets the four RGBA color components (red, green, blue, alpha), refreshes the display and causes RGBA output.

There is nothing here which suggests the palette is changed. I want to select a not too intense white on load, like 0.4 0.4 0.4. But because of the color palette change, this makes it impossible to change to a color afterwards. Is there a way around this? (Example is attached.)

A list of three numbers between 0. and 1. sets the four RGBA color components (red, green, blue, alpha), refreshes the display and causes RGBA output. 

swatch: setting a color changes saturation