Question to those who also drive: how visible is the light projected on the ground, e.g. the big lighted circle on the ground by bike front/rear light (or flashlight) aimed downward?
You don't point the light directly at the ground. Just aim it so that it isn't completely horizontal. That wastes the light anyway. The point is to illuminate the ground so that you can see something before you hit it.
There are also various reflector angles that are going to have a large effect on how much light goes where.
Most LED lights have a 35° reflector which is a wide angle flood light. A few LED lights have 25° reflectors which is a wider spot light. Back in the days of MR16 halogens, you could get 12° reflector lights that were an intense spotlight.
This is also going to make a lot of difference in how the light is perceived by motorists and other riders. A wide flood light looks a bit dazzling but really isn't since it throws it's light over a wide area. Not much of that area is going to be that intense. The wide spot is going to be more intense at the center but it throws less light off to the sides. The really narrow spot puts a whole lot of light in a really tiny area.
In other words, the flood lights are going to get noticed while the spots are going to let you see the ground better.