I guess one factor in this "1000 times more efficient" scam is the higher photon output per surface area. LEDs efficiency drop a lot when maximizing photon per surface area. Edge emitting blue lasers have a much better power conversion rate than LEDs when driven at higher input power. The much better photon/surface area plus higher input power create a much narrower and brighter beam. Therfore only ~10% loss opposed to ~30% with LEDs...

http://m.phys.org/news/2013-11-laser-diodes.html

http://www.winlab.rutgers.edu/~crose/capstone12/entries/Soli...