D
Deleted member 89374
Some oils like Valvoline turn black early on because of the "quality" base oil they use. That's not the oil doing its job, that's the oil failing at it.Additives sometimes change color and break down during use. You note that color is not a good indication and then argue that the color change means that the oil is doing a better job at cleaning, etc.
In a normally driven vehicle that's not short tripped the oil should slowly and steadily turn amber, then brown, then dark brown... eventually black if you let it go far enough or neglect to change it.