The "help" tags do tell you the pitch and other data, of course, but you probably know that.
One thing I've done recently to deal with this problem is to customize the piano roll display, making it very light grey, then darkening the black keys quite a bit in contrast. Since I play piano, this gives me a pretty good sense of orientation at a glance, especially if I look to the left side of the editor and get my octave dialed in.
Just in case you haven't checked it out:
Preferences/display/other takes you to piano roll display options. Play around and maybe you will come up with something that gives some relief.