On second thought - I may not be so wrong after all @rlkoshak - just switched to mapdb persistence, and used the following in my .persist file:
Items {
* : strategy = everyChange, restoreOnStartup
Light*,Scene*,LEDStrip* : strategy = everyMinute, restoreOnStartup
}
It appears to be working well, maintaining states for all lights, Scene_ storage items and now, also the color items.