I thought these led lights are good for light pollution because they're more directed straight down and don't leak as much up? I think there are there other issues like sleeping cycle stuff. Maybe I'm misrembering?

A lot of the companies selling LED streetlights to municipalities will claim improvements in light pollution, because you can, in fact, get many more photons per watt with LEDs than with high pressure sodium (or whatever your local incandescent street light is using).

But it turns out in most cases the town/city just decide to keep spending nearly the same amount on electricity, and put in brighter LED lights. So now they have a little less electricity being used, and much more light.

Some cities will do trial runs, and ask for feedback from the community. And, people being people, in nearly all cases they will say they prefer the brighter streetlights. So again, we end up with brighter lights.

Seems to be quite a bit worse - https://www.savingourstars.org/darkskylighting - more glare for one thing https://spectrum.ieee.org/led-streetlights-are-giving-neighb...

hmm wonder what i was thinking about then

You're forgetting that the color of the light doesn't care about how it was made. If the LEDs being installed were in the warmer color temp direction, then they would be better for the foggy/moist air; nevermind the bluer color's affect on circadian rythms.