I edited my last message and reworded my last sentence in it, there you have it.
When you say you want ‘flood’ without ugly hotspot, and if it can throw in the distance that's a plus, you seem to be asking for a zoom flashlight. Zoom flashlights, with aspheric lens, lose some amount of out the front light when in flood mode (with the lens closest to the emitter), and as you “zoom out” the lens gets farther away from the emitter resulting in a lesser extraction of emitter light but tighter hotspot. But let's avoid being dramatic with the emitter light extraction thing, zoomie flashlights produce excellent and uniform “blankets of light”, being very adaptable (I often every day carry -EDC- one of them). The thread Zooming Model List (2018 Updated) Tell us about your newest zoomie! is a better place to get information on these matters.
A TIR lens will net you a nice blanket of light for close up illumination, with smaller angles being more throwy. I often use an S2+ clone with a 30° TIR lens for close up work (tip: use BLF coupon at FastTech).
Orange peel reflectors give better beam profiles than smooth ones, namely concerning seamless transitions from hotspot to corona and spill (without rings or other possible artifacts even with multi-die emitters). You will still have a hotspot, though.
Last question is a yes, that is a driver swap. If never done you'll need to get skilled on making very flat wire solder joints on emitter MCPCBs, this is because reflectors often sit quite close to them and you don't want to cause electrical shorts (get and use some “kapton” tape just in case).