I have those HD bulbs. They are nowhere near as bad as what you just described.

That’s the problem - sometimes they are great. They are more complex devices that use parts from random Chinese suppliers.

Incandescent bulbs were very simple. Cheap vs name brand. White vs soft white. 120v vs 130v. LEDs have at least 7 attributes, some of which are not documented well or at all.

Tell me what LED bulb is ideal to produce 1500 lumens of output in an outdoor semi-enclosed fixure? It will take about 10 minutes of googling around if you are in the know. The average consumer doesn’t have a chance.

In the 6 years I've been in my current house, having installed these everywhere in the house upon moving in (total around 80 bulbs), I've had less than ten to flicker or otherwise go bad. Maybe I'm just lucky.

I would prefer incandescents though. The only thing I don't miss about them is the heat. Everything else was superior.

They have several different warm LED's at Home Depot. You can generally find 2100K to 3000K. Sometimes even 1800K in the specialty bulbs there.

They're not terrible, but the low CRI keeps me coming back to halogen.