would you be OK with High CRI if it had good tint and good beam pattern, in a color temperature you consider “white” and was not too hot?
they are definitely separate factors, but why settle for less than the best of all the features?
different environments will change how our brain white balances, what looks orange during the day, can look white at night
and what looks white during the day can look blueish at night
there is no single color temperature for all ambient light settings
I only buy lights with Low CRI if I plan to modify them. I dont like using lights with negative R9, so NW is not good enough, and CW is usually Low CRI, so I dont like that. I use my lights mostly in the dark times of day. I can understand if I was working on a car, in the sun, then a bright CW light might be needed.
you can have brightest, or highest CRI
I will trade bright, for good color, because I care about the spectrum balance I use, indoors, close range, with red things
green foliage is not a good test of CRI, in fact CW is better for Green Foliage alone, but not for bark and dirt colors
even how green a tint is, will change based on the white balance of the users brain at the time
Look at the difference in R9 with Low CRI vs High CRI
here is a skillhunt h03 NW, it has good tint, and low CRI
compare the R9 of the Lumintop Tool w N219b, it has good tint and High CRI