Clever idea! Does the step not try to swing under/away from you when you put weight on it?
Yes, it does. My first attempts at using it, I was putting my foot too far in, and ended up rubbing my shin against the JD step. But I soon found that I should not use the middle of my foot at all. I just use the ball and pad area at the front of my foot (I don't know anatomy enough to know what it's called), and that works great. It swings in a little, but I'm standing over it enough that it doesn't swing that much -- not enough to swing my leg into the JD step, as long as my foot is not too far in.
After about 4 or 5 tries, I got the "swing" of it (pun intended) so that it does just what I needed: gets me up high enough for my other foot to catch the JD step without having wrenched my back to get there!
Oh, and as to color: I found that it is pretty visible in its location. So I went ahead and got some metal primer and JD green. I'll be priming the step and chains (except the quick link) today, and plan to paint it tomorrow. Probably over several days I'll add a few coats. I'm not using the tractor right now anyway. (Walnut time!)
Edit: Looking at my original photo, I can see that it is a little deceptive, because it's in the dark shop where I store the tractor. The step, to the human eye, is much more visible than it looks like in the photo. You know how that is! That being the case, I thought that yellow might look a little too "add on" or "industrial" or something, whereas the green looks like it's just another part of the tractor. Anyway, that's my thinking.