Exactly, which is why my solution wasn’t to just up the power in my H4s, but to add aux lights with a very very specific function.
Those thin pencil-beams did wonders, and ironically enough were better than flicking on my brights.
When you flick on the brights, you’re reaching out, but in the same reflector/prism setup as the dips, so it throws more light forward, but it’s now not lighting the area immediately in front of you, so one good pothole, and you have less time to react.
With my DLs and staying on lowbeams, I have all that right-in-front-of-me coverage very nicely, but the pencil-beams lit up more of what was in that black hole way up front. Signs, markers, anything retroreflective, would light up like they’re on fire. And only 55W meant that way way way out in that black hole, anyone coming my way would still see only dim light, and by the time that distance would close, you’re already well out of the hotspot.
Again, never ever got flashed, not for my H4s, and not for those DLs. And again again, they’re pencil-beams, so aiming them is absolutely critical.
Point being that with trying a LED retrofit, you’re stuck with the pattern that’s determined by the reflector and the placement of the filament. Adding an array of high-intensity chips might get you the brightness, but without the same exact placement where the filament should be in 3D space, the results would be horrible. Especially anyone who screws around with flashlights and needs to sand or shim or center, should understand that innately. Throwing more lemons out the assembly would be brighter, but probably also fling errant light all over the place, including into oncoming drivers’ eyes.
That’s why despite replacing pretty much all other hotwire lighting with LEDs (with great results, fwiw), I’m leaving my headlights as-is. I haven’t yet seen anything that can produce the same pattern and not also introduce all kinds of glare.