You've posted this several times, in various threads, since at least last year. (I've also attempted to gently correct you before.) I don't care if you dislike Anduril (you've mentioned blinkies and complexity before which are very valid points in their own right), but I ask that you stop spreading false information about it.
It is not an Anduril problem. It is a driver problem. It is consistently difficult to achieve very low levels using the traditional 7135 and/or FET design. The lowest lows of all my flashlights are as follows:
- Absolute lowest: Jetbeam RRT01
- SC62(w)
- Nitecore EX11.2 on 16340
- FW3A and Emisar D4 (pretty even match, actual usability is indistinguishable but I'm sure the lumen count is technically different)
- Several lights I've modded to use the "Moonlight Special" driver
- My modded Convoy L6
- A bunch of other FET/7135-driver lights that don't have a dedicated 1x7135 channel for moonlight
(Note: IIRC there's one or more Manker AA/AAA lights that have a pretty low moonlight)
Notice the common factor between 1, 2, and 3? They don't use FET/7135 driver styles. (The tradeoff, of course, is that 7135/FET is very simple and cheap.)
For a more technical view of things... My understanding is that, in general, you can only effectively run these things so low. You also talk about "flicker-free" low modes, which is fun. I'm not aware of other good ways to control a single 7135's output besides PWM, but I'm starting to get out of my depth there. Anyway, as I understand it, you can only PWM it so much before you start to get some disgusting flicker going on. PWM itself isn't necessarily bad, because it can be done on the scale of thousands of cycles per second, speeds where you'd be lucky to catch it on a camera. But to get down to the ultra lows without switching driver technologies, the PWM gets into lower frequencies.
Also, the KR4 driver in particular has a further limitation on moonlight, which has been gone over a few times: some part of the driver (the MCU or the FET I think, but I'm too lazy to look it up again) doesn't officially support the current of, as I recall, the lowest two configured ramp levels. So by default it ships with the minimum ramp (and therefore lowest mode) as ramp level 3. This can be configured lower but may land anywhere in the range of "works fine what's the problem" to "just doesn't power on at that level", with a lot of in-between landing at "turns on visibly slowly, almost ramping up to the moonlight". This is, again, a driver issue rather than an Anduril issue.
Edit: SammysHP covered some of the finer points in an excellent post above.