I think there should not really be anything about imagining uses for moonlight, because there are many valid uses, and when it comes down to it, another light is not really necessary to any of us here, is it? I think what really happens is there is an large undercurrent of people who don’t post about this and are unhappy about moonlight more because of what happens when light builds are discussed for group buys. They have a hard time expressing the annoyance, so if they do say anything they reach for reasons like “what do you really need it for” instead of what is really going on: the inflated importance of moonlight over other functions. There just shouldn’t be sacrifices to other much more common functions that are made as a “compromise” so the moonlight can be included, if moonlight is not the main attraction of the light. Now I’m even one who likes moonlight. But if its going to reduce my max by much or get rid of useful functions, no thanks. At times I even desire moonlight mode most, but it doesn’t have to be on EVERY light for those uses to be satisfied.
Probably for the vast majority of non vocal users, moonlight is pretty unused, and when a few want to specify exacting sub lumen standards for moonlight mode and go into arguments whether it is “true moonlight” and this becomes the “most important issue” for the entire light…until the light is made, taken home and used, when 490/500 of the users I suspect don’t end up caring or using moonlight ever anyways. Of course whatever you want to use the light for is the “most important use”.
I do really like having a moon mode, but I just feel moonlight specifics should never be prioritized above other functions, unless THAT is the main function/purpose of the light. If it sacrifices some other functionality to include it and the light is not targeting sub lumen lovers, if we are being fair then “sorry, we cant do .0003lumens here” is the reasonable answer. Its like if we had a few people into morse code arguing about the necessary speed and brightness of a SOS function here…nobody really cares but them, and just think if we had to up the moonlight lumen output just to include this function for morse code lovers…it would be just as fair as moonlight prioritized over max output, but there would be many people saying they wont play in the sandbox anymore if the moonlight mode is “not a moonlight” anymore so as to include a proper morse code. However, if you ever need them, both are still nice to have.
I did actually use my moonlight a few months ago, to go to the toilet when I actually remembered to put the light with moon mode by the bed and remembered hit it into moon mode to do my…classified tasks…it is kinda nice occasionally. It will also be nice when I go camping again some summer, or in emergencies for long runtime, but not nice enough to sacrifice anything like max output or a usable low mode or anything actually commonly used.
Thankfully, it looks like if we just hang on and stick to our guns in group buys, we can easily have both max output and moonlight modes. Yup, I really want it too in that case.