Reading the thread title and I'm thinking "darkness"
It is indeed Darkness!
Some stages do it better than others but often it's a gimmick that exists to be a pain as opposed to shaking up the platforming in a strong way.
Honestly one of my least favourites are the sections in Shovel Knight of all games, where they make the screen mostly shadowed but use lightning strikes to lighten the area briefly, I can't put my finger on why these bits in particular do my swede.
Meanwhile I'll happily roam through Tomb of the Giants and the Gutter in Souls games, and the previously mentioned Ori and the Will of the Wisps area.
So I think it's entirely how its executed for me, the ones that involve waiting on light flashes to progress can just get in the bin, the rest I can kinda enjoy usually.
DKC1 has the interesting case of a stage with obnoxious flashing lights (Blackout Basement) and timed lighting (Loopy Lights) and the latter is so much better because the player is more in control of the lighting gimmick and it doesn't assault your eyes like the other one.
