Color-absolute magnitude style diagrams for the sample in this paper with accurate distances. Top left: source density. Top right: variable types from the R23 subsample with classifications. Bottom left: average G astrophysical dispersion. Bottom right: percentage of objects with VVV variability flag. Isochrones for 1 Ma, 10 Ma, 100 Ma, 1 Ga, and 10 Ga (in all cases for solar metallicity) are plotted in grey, with the isochrones being a combination of Geneva (Lejeune & Schaerer 2001) for high-mass stars and Padova (Girardi et al. 2000; Salasnich et al. 2000) for low-mass stars (see Maíz Apellániz 2013). The two black dotted vertical lines in the first panel show the location of the color limits for the calculation of the instrumental dispersion. The discontinuity seen around G_abs = −1.5 mag is caused by the inclusion of the LMC (and, to a lesser degree, the SMC at difference of half a magnitude) stars, which dominate the Gaia luminous star population if one does not correct for extinction (compare with Fig. 14). In the top right panel the number of plotted sources per variable type is capped at 10 000 to allow all types to be seen better.