Please forgive me for pointing this out and don’t take it as a personal dig or pettiness on my part. Your thread HERE about popping a diminutive lithium primary cell and your overall reaction to that is precisely why manufacturers have been moving to various forms of protected cells and packs (“proprietary” or otherwise). And that was a comparatively low energy density compared to much larger li-ion cells, and those being asked to deliver higher current loads such as in these lights. Even with your 12 years of carefree experience you made an oops and got pretty upset about it because it scared you (and thankfully no harm to you in the process).
In the past “we” certainly have seen bigger oopses from multi-cell li-ion lights in various forms, and the potential is no less today than it was at any of those other times for those designs. Lights that use multi cells at high loads do command a greater sense of caution and safety awareness, and since even “experienced” people don’t always do that, packs and controls are the smart way (mostly) for manufacturers to mitigate the risks - both to users and to themselves as a company that may face litigation or brand-souring complaints and commentary.
I’m not a fan of packs that remove user input and serviceability but sometimes it makes sense. It’s no different than power tools and vacuums where the demands are similar (actually often much more severe but they use different cells, too, and smart BMS in addition). What I don’t like about the trend is inflated pricing and what is often limited availability as manufacturers stop making packs available after a too-short period of time when they move on to the next models or designs and fail to support previous ones. Overall these light-monster designs are fun and at one time were the realm of enthusiasts building at home, but for the few manufacturers willing to put these out now, they do need to take their business as a whole into account, and frankly it makes much more sense to do packs, given the general behavior of end users and the relatively high potential of accidents that could be avoided. Sure, it will cost a bit more but if they would be a little more fair in the pricing of packs it wouldn’t be too horrible. I think the overall design approach of packs could be made more user friendly in some lights but they do what they do and if you don’t like it, don’t buy it, right.
Also, those were awesome raccoon pics. 