My "D" batteries will now have a 'they've been used up but still have power' purpose.
Sounds like a good combo for you. With the lower power draw of the LED, those big D cells will give you usable light for a good, long time. Definitely not a barn burner (or should I say, retina burner), but with fairly dark adapted eyes, you have enough light to work with for many, many hours. A tough general purpose or "hurricane" light.
I like that form factor of LED in a 2-D cell angle head flashlight that can stand on its own, but there are really no off-the-shelf options unless you go custom-built, like from Elektrolumens, or switch to a CR123 battery configuration. Then again, LED's are so efficient now that you don't really need all the capacity of D cells like you do with incandescent bulbs.