Oil color won't tell you anything about engine condition. Continental does say a rapid change within the first 10 hours of operation, but the truth is that oil may instantly discolor, and this means nothing. Without performing spectrometric oil analysis for a baseline, then making a trend comparison, smelling oil, looking at the oil, and feeling the oil won't really tell you anything.
The notion of piston ring gaps lining up to drop compression or increase oil consumption is an old one, but has no basis in fact.