The lighting industry, with the encouragement & direction of government regulatory bodies, is focused on one thing above all else: efficiency. LEDs are more energy efficient per lumen and so are promoted for ostensible reasons of cost, energy conservation, and the assumption that more powerful lights leads to greater safety. Of course this amounts to having your cake and eating it too, since if you channeling that efficiency into brighter lights you aren't conserving anything.
This means a neglect by industry and government of the physics of light and how it is processed by the eye. Intense bluish white light isn't easy for the eyes of animals and people to process and actually doesn't help them see well at night compared to the more subdued yellow/amber lights. More isn't always better because your eye has the ability to adapt to perceive things in lower light if it isn't thrown off by constant interruptions of harsh brightness.
here's an organization that is trying to seek a regulatory changes on LEDs in different ways:
http://www.softlights.org/law-and-action/
