I still can't fathom why people would care in the slightest what their message bubble color was (I mean as a European I don't get iMessage at all, I use Signal and WhatsApp for the less tech-literate family of mine), it sounds like the most insanely petty thing to grab onto to care about.
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The colors functionally denote the features available in the chat. In group chats, having a single non-iMessage user devolves the features available to the group chat to the SMS level. You also lose E2E and high res pictures and video.
The different colors of bubbles are a consequence of iMessage's origin as a protocol that supplanted SMS/MMS messaging while allowing the older protocols as seamless fallbacks; WhatsApp, Signal et al never had a requirement like that, and consequently never had to deal with different feature sets among their users (at least, not to the same extent).
> Signal never had a requirement like that
See TextSecure
iMessage only works on iOS.
If even one non-iOS user joins a chat then all features except for basic texting (SMS and MMS) are dropped.
I don't think I need to tell you how much of todays' social interaction happens in group chats. Not having WhatsApp in the Netherlands when you're younger than 30 would effectively make you a hermit.
It's probably similar with iMessage in the US.
This creates an enormous peer pressure effect, especially for young people, to buy an iOS device.