This is why I have been a lot less active lately. All the HID stuff out in nature is dwindling and it is quite depressing. Obviously there will still be a lot of HID around for a while yet but I keep longing for a bygone era and it sucks that it is gone, and replaced with these lame ass white light sources that promise so much and half the time don't even live up to expectation. Yes they are efficient. But efficiency lacks soul. It is the same thing with modern cars, modern computers, modern paint schemes.... MODERN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN.... It all just honestly sucks. Ain't my style. Ain't my vibe.
You're not the only one who feels this way, I can tell you that. It's really unfortunate how it always seems like the most efficient solutions are also the most boring and soulless. I try to have a positive outlook on things, but the direction it seems things are going in the future (lighting being a big one of course, but I'm also talking about things like subscription based products instead of full ownership, self driving cars, most modern architecture, technology and items being nearly impossible for the end user to service... yeah) I don't feel like there's much to look forward to anymore. Lighting is the worst of it though, back when things other than LED were commonplace I thought the way fluorescent and HID lighting worked was amazing and almost magical. LEDs certainly don't have that same appeal, and I absolutely hate the fact that it seems like there isn't a single application where LED isn't the better choice.
Honestly if it wasn't for the career I want to pursue and my seemingly never ending desire to learn new things (or to see what kinds of scientific discoveries come in the future), I'd like to just move somewhere as far away from civilization as reasonable for me, build my dream workshop and a small off grid house, adopt some rescue farm animals, and enjoy my lighting collection and other things I like in peace. Maybe I'd even have a few neighbors/friends with similar attitudes, who knows.
I suppose you could try ordering one and seeing what they say. I suppose since the FCO version is still made, it isn't too much of a stretch to continue making the drop lens version if Holophane suddenly had stock of refractors again. Or maybe it's only offered with plastic refractors now...who knows.
I tried ordering some, they are officially discontinued. In fact, all of AEL's HID stuff is gone, making them another LED-only manufacturer now.