All these quibbles!
...don't really seem like quibbles to me. The question of what Mars really looks like is highly subjective, because we're asking how the human visual system will process and interpret an alien landscape. Everybody who replied had a valid perspective on the matter.
I think that if Splinx, Nathan, REB, and Ecto all went to Mars today, you'd each see Mars the way you expect. You'd each have primed your brains with an expectation of what sort of "correction" you'd need to make, and you'd make it.
--Robert