The instant muted->bright color swap felt abrupt next to the fading
halo. The hover name is again drawn at partial alpha over the muted
resting label, using the SAME transition factor as the halo — text
and glow fade in/out in sync. Because every enter/leave interpolates
from the current fade value, rapid hover toggles at a node's hit
boundary glide instead of snapping (the flicker-damping fix).