I agree. The github page links to a Google colab page though(https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1WJfLJH0mBzXGGeRfvQa...) where the first image has a diagonal grid with much less frequent lines. This version of the illusion is more compelling to me.

It's like eating a candy bar with 10% of the sugar. The mind will think it's almost as nice as the original candy bar.

Well, it is B&W. The N here is so large that you can easily resolve the pixels that should be B&W, yet they aren't.