which ones are better? is the modern day EYE mercury lamp comparable to the older mercuries made back in their heyday?

The older mercury lamps that seemingly lasted forever like the original "lifeguard" lamps had something done to them in order to achieve such incredibly long life, note that these lamps lasted as much as 3-4x longer than their 24,000h rating, while still emitting acceptable light levels well beyond the 24,000h mark. These lamps that ive removed from service over the years always have three things in common, a white (not blackened) arctube, a very skinny and elongate arctube, and electrodes nearly twice the size of modern lamps. 

The EYE lamps don't include any of the aforementioned features, they are simply just the highest quality produced today, their arctubes still blacken like all other modern lamps, however the EYE lamps will actually last the 24,000 hours unlike the chinese lamps. EYE mercury lamps I have installed in the past produce acceptable amount of light for about 7-8 years burning dusk to dawn (roughly 28,000 hours), after that they get very very dim.

I expects that EYE would still use the anti-blackening emitter in their lamps that turns the arctube white instead of black, like the Lifeguard. Lamps that uses the usual thorium emitter, tends to blacken very fast and so degrades in output very fast.

The older mercury lamps that seemingly lasted forever like the original "lifeguard" lamps had something done to them in order to achieve such incredibly long life, note that these lamps lasted as much as 3-4x longer than their 24,000h rating, while still emitting acceptable light levels well beyond the 24,000h mark. These lamps that ive removed from service over the years always have three things in common, a white (not blackened) arctube, a very skinny and elongate arctube, and electrodes nearly twice the size of modern lamps. 

The EYE lamps don't include any of the aforementioned features, they are simply just the highest quality produced today, their arctubes still blacken like all other modern lamps, however the EYE lamps will actually last the 24,000 hours unlike the chinese lamps. EYE mercury lamps I have installed in the past produce acceptable amount of light for about 7-8 years burning dusk to dawn (roughly 28,000 hours), after that they get very very dim.

I noticed that the arctube in my Philips Lifeguard has a very thin, long arctube. It has almost no whitening on it but it is dimmer than a normal 175w clear lamp.

Every EYE mercury lamp ive removed had a blackened (not white) arc tube, I dont think any lamp maker uses that chemical that turns the arctube white anymore, I cant say ive seen it on any modern lamps.

Actually GE invented the emitter that turns the arctube white, and that used in the Westinghouse Lifeguard MV lamps, with their Bonus Line MV lamps: http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Spec%20Sheets/D%20MB%20GE%20BonusLine%20175.htm
Osram in Europe, also used this emitter that the Westingehouse Lifeguard MV lamps used, in their HQA and later in their HQL MV lamps: http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Spec%20Sheets/D%20MB%20Osram%20HQA125.htm