True. My uncle was an eye surgeon and encouraged us to protect our eyes from UV at all times, even wear sunglasses always during full daylight.
The human eye doesn’t need full daylight to work properly, and the pupil can only contract so far to dim it down.
Lowers the chance of developing cataracts too.
Being short-sighted I’ve always had glasses on, with plastic lenses they block UV almost completely, so despite being older than some, I hope my colour perception is still reasonably OK.
Contact lenses aren’t so protective.
If you use a UV torch, always protect your eyes.
Living in Northern latitudes, mostly 50 degrees North, (but not under the ozone hole) probably helps as well.
It makes sense to me that those with older or simply worn-out eyes from long exposure to bright sunlight might prefer the higher colour temperatures, and have less preference for high CRI.
Wear your eyes out and you’ll also become less sensitive to lower light levels, many elderly have real trouble driving at night, almost blind.
The human eye was probably only “designed” to last 40 years or so and hasn’t evolved much since, so look after yours.
I very rarely use a torch in daylight, that’s probably why I prefer low colour-temp, high CRI, and high intensity is of less importance.