To me…. CRI is but one part of the equation, a small part at that.
I personally have no “specefic practical” use for a high CRI light.
For medical purposes its a must.
None, though the warmer tints do seem to penetrate fog/mist better and that’s a frequent issue for me.
Edit, Actually, the high CRI LED on my Nitecore NU25 is nice for map reading.
I don't have any high CRI flashlights.
Those emitters don't handle heat very well, and they might not be as bright either.
For me, hi cri is a must. I have glaucoma and I work in the IT infrastructure business. When looking at a broken out 288 strand fiber cable or 1200 pair copper cable or in network racks with cables of various colors high brightness/low cri is not helpful. One must be able to identify individual hair fine wires and fibers very accurately and hi cri is the only way to go. For me, color temperature is also very important, a range from about 3750k to 4500k is ideal. All of my mods get 219b sw35 or sw45k leds, high power mods get sst-20 in a good bin, thank god I bought a bunch, at 4000k. I have also had some success with XM-L2 and XP-L2’s in the 5A and 5D bins, although they are not as good. I also use hi cri lights as flood and spots with photography, great for macro work.
Above 80CRI i have not noticed that much difference.
These days i buy lights in the 4000K range, cool enough to not be indoor nighttime illumination (where i like 3000K) but not clinically cold like 5000-6500K.
I have an old XP-E light that is something like 65CRI, on that boy do you notice it.
We are all different and I even suspect we even see things actually really different so this kind of discussion will always be very personal. Me I like my hi-cri lights best of all, I simply like to see things in colors and with natural depth like I would in daylight.
A lot of people here really seem to need their zillion-lumen lights but me personally I don’t need a lot of light and judge my lights much more at low-level performance than at how powerful they are. Still like to play around with something powerful once in a while but I’m done with anything above NW, I really don’t like the blue and washed-out flat view the CW lights give so I’ll gladly trade some power for better color and depth to look at.
Amen, preachin’ to the chior! Almost all of my lights that are 18650 or bigger have some kind of FET driver, because I like the software, but I find I rarely get into the FET level output. I also will not ever go above 5000k for a general use light, only a few of my throwers go higher. I am a bit of a tint/cri snob and each EDC candidate gets compared day one with a 219b sw-40 light and a well binned (not green) sst-20 light. From that moment, I decide if it will get new leds or not. I usually compare at ML and about 400 lumens as they always get better with hard driving and high amps.
For artists, auto techs, quality control techs, medical or forensic pathologists, technicians, or crime scene investigators, who need accurate color rendering.
Uses for high CRI?
- admiring garden at night
- checking if fish is fully cooked
Question what is a good led, when opening up my ps4.
I don’t know why I buy high CRI emitter flashlights, mainly it’s due to this place. I take the advice of respected members who I trust and that goes into my purchasing choice. I used to only buy 6500k any CRI lights, ive now changed and don’t like using those cold lights as much anymore.
I use high CRI lights for night and urbex photography - link to my insta to see the resulting photos are in my signature.
Hood stuff…Keep talking…close to me spending more money.
Just switched my fence post lights to warm. So much nicer.
The way this question read in my mind was “What are the practical uses of flavoring food”?
Someone saying they don’t see the point of High CRI lights is like someone saying they don’t see the point in flavoring food.
If all you ate was diarrhea and someone came along and gave you a solid turd and told you it was a steak…
Some of ya’ll are way too used to confusing turds for steaks 
This has been my Ted Talk, Thank you for coming.
That is hilarious and accurate.
I’m also feel the same way where I prefer high CRI vs high lumens for my EDC.
BUTTT, you can also get high CRI with 5000K+ temperature. An example is the Nichia Optisolis SM653-P9-Rfa00 6500K LED. It has the highest CRI that I believe you can get from an LED. It’s like other high CRI LEDs where the lumens is not that great. It also has a slight bluish tint which is expected for 6500K, but renders colors amazingly well!
Personally I prefer a temperature between 4000-5000K, but high CRI is still most important to me.
I get the feeling this thread was to garner ideas on how to market high cri.
High CRI sells itself if you’ve properly experienced it.
But for those that have not, I would ask them these 2 questions as a retailer.
Are you familiar with the benefits of polarized glasses? What about the benefits of a 4K television? Ok great, well High CRI is like a cross between both of those technologies except for all real life around you. But if you’re the kind of consumer that is happy buying the absolute cheapest TV with the worst image you can find, then a High CRI flashlight may not be right for you. 
I think you missed my point