How many lists do you have? If you only have one, that's why.

This feature, I put in place to allow one to quickly copy list appearance settings from one list to another.

Another thing is that XML exports/imports carry the list settings with them. This allows you the ability to use 'Templates'. For a template, create an empty list and name it 'Template' or something like that. Then, setup all colors, and export as XML. Then when you need a new list, import 'Template' and rename it.