Ok, I dug into the problem a little deeper, and it seems that it really can be considered a bug in the circuitikz code -- in order to remedy it for the present time, the circuitikz.code.tex file from this package should be modified, and the line:
\ctikzset{color/.initial=black} must be removed / commented-out. Nonetheless, I do think that to make it easier for people to share org-mode files that use packages that are in some way buggy, having a way to specify #+LaTeX_HEADER options which only apply when generating preview images would be useful, so that workarounds for bugginess could be added on the org-mode side, instead of requiring all collaborators to patch their buggy libraries / packages. Regards, Mark