Interesting...I think I have this right that this could be summarized like:

1. Rode with a 500 lumen front light on blinking mode, during the day, with the light aimed fairly far forward, but still down at the road.
2. Drivers would annoyingly do things like waiting way to long as places like stop signs, freezing in place, possibly because they couldn't judge your distance.
3. You tried pointing your light down more, closer to the wheel, which probably made the light less bright overall to drivers.
4. Result is that drivers acted more normally, and still seemed to be able to see you just as well

Does that sound right?