Subject: bug#8454: Themes can't work right due to design

From: "Drew Adams" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 09:52:10 -0800

> :inherit isn't very useful as a way to say "make the
> current face like the specified one".

+1.

It's a sledge hammer, and it is way overused (& increasingly so).
(Just one opinion.)

See also 
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2011-02/msg00067.html