Dark mode to me harkens back to the days of terminals and mainframes. Light mode was popularized by the likes of Apple who believed in the wysiwyg philosophy. A document on screen should resemble its counterpart on paper.
But dark does seem to be in vogue once again. Something I did not see coming, much like how vinyl came back—which also tends to be a dark medium now that I think of it, though I can't think of any reason it really needs to be? Hmm…