Against HID the LEDs do not have that many advantages: The efficacy is not that much higher (just 2x or so; compare to incandescents it is 10x), the HID's usually mean hih power levels, where the LED cost will be still rather high (LED cost scales with power, but the HID cost nearly does not depend on the power level - a 70W HID type costs nearly the same as a 400W one, but a 400W LED costs 5x more than a 70W one).
But on the other hand HID's and majority fluorescents are of higher power installations, where the electricity cost becomes so high, it makes people think about it...

But indeed, the comparison with vacuum tubes vs transistors is not far off...

When Sir Humphry Davy, invented the carbon arc, despite it was much more efficient than the incandescent lamp, it was phased out in favor of the incandescent lamp because of its superglaring and very strong light and the very short life. LED glare level is infinity times higher than carbon arc, and in most applications, it have much shorter life than the lamp that it was replaced (Fluorescent, HID) and despite this, it is highly adopted everywhere, even in applications of the more efficient and longer life fluorescent and HID lamps and fixtures.