That's part of it. Part of it is that sodium bulbs are power hungry, so they tend to be provisioned to be dimmer.

Also, many LEDs have reflectors on top that prevent them from shooting light into the sky. These aren't required by building codes from what I've seen. Similarly, I don't think buildings are designed with this in mind.

Office buildings with massive glass atriums / skylights tend to be particularly bad offenders, since indoor lighting is often designed to bounce light off the ceiling.