I don't see that happen in Unity for me, which color scheme/theme are you using?
#423 is already open about changing the icon to something closer to the rest of Unity's indicators.
I'm using a pretty much default Ubuntu 12.10 (x64) install so no custom themes nor colour schemes. I haven't even changed the background.
Hello @njallam, are you still experiencing this issue with an up to date system?
Closing pending feedback.
Nothing extracted yet.
When in the dash (after clicking the Home button in the launcher), the steam indicator at the top whites out. This is because when in the dash, the indicators appear white. This however does not work for the Steam icon very well and looks like a bug while it is actually normal functionality in Unity.