Flew a sortie last night, cutting into my sleep-time, but it was worth it.
Set gamma back to 1.0, and all is golden!
Looked pretty good, had more depth than I thought it would. That last version must have really been mixed up with lighting, as it looked like a solid green color, but it's now got variations in it. See what a little lighting can do?
Flew around, going from 22k down to the deck in the trees... Looks good, IMO! I didn't see any glaring flaws, other than maybe the airfield tiles don't match the green tiles around them, but this is very minor.
EDIT: Okay, I thought of ONE thing I didn't like: the jagged horizon. But that was easy enough to forget once the enemy got close and I focused on more important stuff.