The unfortunate thing is, LED lighting IS actually better than traditional lighting today, there’s no longer such thing sadly as “a high performance discharge lamp”!, when semiconductor technology now beats them on efficiency and simplicity! even in your humble household light bulb.
The only thing that isn’t catching up as quickly is their reliability, but from what I see every day, this is indeed improving.
Last night I came home from work at 5, and due to the clocks going back in the UK, it was the first time I’ve seen the new 3000K LED street lighting that was fitted a few months ago lit!
I have to say, the remaining HPS lamp dotted about can’t hold a candle to them!, the crisp sharp light from the 3000K diodes looks so much better on the road and surrounding foliage than the muted soft golden glow from the HPS, even the glare has now been eliminated with the new Thorn Isaro Pros.
I also saw in a different place, (some 50 odd miles away from where I work), while coming back from a Halloween Scarefest, mercury free HPS in operation, and they look just awful with their hideous sickly yellow colour!
But it is correct that the average ‘Joe’ doesn’t care about any of this as much as lighting enthusiasts do?