Is there a way one could improve the rendering of this gradient?
After creating a gradient swatch and applying it to a rectangle that fills the entire page to use as a background, the gradient looks bad so I would like to improve the quality of it and High Quality display performance doesn't change anything:
Banding within gradients is often a result of color stops being too similar and long distances between stops.
Often, for print work, onscreen gradients will show more banding than a press will. Of course, this is of little help unless you get color proofs or chromakeys from your print provider to check the gradients before printing them.
Since InDesign offers little ability to disperse colors within a gradient. The best you can do is use color stops which are not so similar if possible, or decrease the distance between the color stops.
If you need a "background" gradient, it can often be better to create it in Photoshop where you can add a touch of noise or diffusion to break up any banding which may be present.
Comments above is wrong for that case. Although it's true Adobe have the worst vector gradients in the whole industry (no dithering), making it borderline unusable for professional modern design, in the above case there are plenty of room for a smoother gradient.
I know I would try to switch the rendering engine. But here's what I got with an old CS 5.5 on that desktop. CMYK colors help but stil:
