I believe that with the aux lights, it's a hardware limitation.
The TiTS10 has the new multi-channel Anduril that allows you to enable each color of aux as a channel; try 9H from On and keep holding. However, it only has them on High with 1H/2H doing nothing. You can 3C between them and normal operation (Channel 1; main emitters), but that's it.
I guess I'm still young then despite being born while Watergate was still going on.
Personally, I find the moonlight on my B35AM S21E excessively bright. Pretty close to my M44.
For one thing, cheap lights rarely have good color rendering. They make people look like zombies, wash out detail, and just don't do color very well. If you cannot tell brown from green, you will step in that dog mess in the lawn. While some enthusiast-grade lights also do that, most enthusiast lights that lack color rendering make up for it with sheer throw. Often in the 400-800m range, and sometimes up to 2,900m (yes, ~1.8 miles).
As for "similar brightness", a lot of cheap lights do not meet their claims while enthusiast lights do. For instance, the light you see sold a lot under hundreds of different names (including Gearlight S1000) and many of us get a cheap knockoff free with our battery orders claims 1,000-2,000 lumens depending who slaps their name on it, but it actually doesn't even make 300. The D2 gets about double that at startup. On one channel. Oh, and if you zoom that Gearlight to max throw, it's only 86 lumens; about half of what a D2 can sustain for the entire charge of it's battery. Here is what a 1,400-lumen light that *actually *makes 1,400 lumens looks like. And both the D2 and TS10 are tiny lights that run on an AA-sized battery. Larger lights are more powerful.
Hanklights (Emisar/Noctigon) also have the option to be configured many different ways. Hank is famous for shipping accordingly. Your choice of color temperature, some emitters available in actual (often monochromatic) colors like Deep Red, or maybe you want a UV light that has a filter that cuts the non-UV part of the beam out. Some lights, like the D2, offer multiple choices as they have two or three channels.
Metal construction doesn't mean much if you use cheap metal and/or bad machining. The build quality is notably better for enthusiast-grade lights.
In short, it's the difference between a decent restaurant and McDonalds.
While the fridge itself may not be humid, once you take it out, you will be someplace that likely is humid. And that's where the fun begins... and by "fun" I mean "condensation".
Sofirn LT1 all the way, especially if USB-C is mandatory.
I might change my mind if I could get a nice diffuser for my M44 though since the boost-driven Nichia's are more appealing to me. With a spare set of cells and charger that can take USB-C input that I'd be packing for other reasons anyways, it wouldn't be a a real inconvenience either.
Most people, myself included, rarely do much more with Anduril than on/off and ramping. The reason Anduril is "complicated" is similar to why supermarkets stock items you have no need/desire for; because someone else may want the things you don't. And it's easier to ignore options you don't need/want than use ones you don't have.
It kind of makes sense if you look at the geometry though. Look at the wasted space in the 3*AA holder and think how many more Wh you could get if that space were filled with more anode/cathode/electrolyte.
Given how many folks refuse to buy any 14500 light that can't take AA's, as well as how many simply don't believe that there is any way a battery smaller than a D cell can hold enough power to do anything because that was true 30+ years ago, I can see why.
Not wrong, but "a few millimeters" means a lot more for a 14500 light than for an 18650/21700 light. While many may think the ~8mm difference in length between the D4V2 and D4K isn't much, it's enough for some folks (myself included) to sacrifice the runtime.
More importantly, it's harder to accommodate a wider range of lengths without getting some rattle on shorter cells. Not an insurmountable problem, but definitely a consideration. The range required to take protected/USB-charging cells is a bit wider; >10% of the cell length, and a much larger percentage of the travel length of the spring. Dual-spring helps by splitting that across two springs, but has limits.
More often now that I have lights that don't suck like the one on my phone, or the Streamlights that my old shop issued. I do a fair bit of inspection work that requires more and better light than the overhead lights, find myself looking in dark corners all the time, own cats that like getting into weird places, and investigate odd noises from the back yard.
I usually EDC two lights; one that's more convenient and one that's more powerful. They're different enough in other ways to justify the dual-wielding.
The issue with protected cells is that they don't make allowances for going into momentary load territory that the cell can handle safely. I have no qualms pulling 20A from a 30Q for a moment, but a lot of 18650 protection would clamp down at the 15A CDR. I'm fairly sure that I'm not alone a willingness to give up a few hundred mAh from my 18650s to get 18500's wearing funny hats **if ** we could get the amps an unprotected cell allows while getting protection from actual shorts.
Sadly, 21700's would be a problem. While 14430 and 18500 are (somewhat) standard sizes that can easily be shimmed to 14500/18650 size, there's no slightly-shorter 21mm cell. Most 21700's are made into battery packs that have that protection as part of the pack, so there's no need for such protection on the cell. And I don't think there's enough flashlight enthusiasts and vapers to create a new standard.
A less expensive light with many choices of superior emitters seems better to me. Then again, for those that can't tell CRI 94 from CRI 74 or tell a 219b from a 219c from the amount of green and go solely by lumens, I can see why some folks wouldn't care about the things that set the KC1 apart from the others.