You gain a great number of possible minerals. My personal favorites are Tan, Orange and Yellow. Although red could be "blood diamonds" (?)

The default color might look slightly more crummy, though. Everything is a tradeoff, after all.

If you ask me, for the possibilities of map editing, it's worth it. It gives more of an space exploration vibe. And it increases variety.

To make the color: After you have put this into your MPQ, just select the minerals patch and change the player. The result will be visible ingame.

It's even compatible with multiplayer and iccup (though this version is not with remastered graphics)