Camping and hiking I just don't need much light. Perhaps a few seconds here and there to find something in the bottom of a backpack or to unknot a tangles line but I have gone days camping without any artificial light.

Second, when I need a light I usually don't need a whole lot of light. My eyes are getting older and I need more than I used to but still 99% of the stuff I'm concerned with is within arms reach. A single medium output LED is fine for most work.

Generally, the advancements in LEDs has meant that my old incandescent lights are being decommissioned and pensioned off. Or converted. I have a half-dozen of the old incandescent 2-AA Mini-Mags. Some pushing twenty years old. Most of these I have converted using a Nite-Ize LED conversion kit. It is a very cost effective package. The Mini-Mags are still, as of last week, available for about 8$. The LED conversion kit goes for $5 if you just get the LED module but $11 with a fancy switch unit that, quite frankly, adds nothing in function IMHO. The bottom line on this is that you can get a simple, reliable and effective LED flashlight for about $13.

There are times when I need a high output flashlight. Search and rescue and reading addresses in a rainstorm come to mind. For those roles my favorite is a Xenon unit made by Hubbel that uses 3-C cells. I bought three of them and am down to one after someone walked away with one and cheap batteries ate one up. Unfortunately it is no longer made by them. The Pelican Sabre is an near exact copy and Hubbel may have had their made by them under contract. The Hubbel is MSA rated for most explosive atmospheres. It is the flashlight I carry working on the gas plant and battery banks. The Hubbel was selling for $13 on sale but the Pelican equivalent goes for $25 to $45 depending on who sells them and if you can get them on sale.

Yes, I have friends that show up with their flashlights going for $100 and up. Nice enough, but then again high end units tend to walk off, cause crying if they get dropped off a seven story building because you slipped, or dropped into a concrete form as the mud is being poured, and really don't seem to be more reliable in practical terms because the limit on reliability is usually a matter of battery life not flashlight durability.

A cheaper, but solid, unit with good lithium cells is functionally about as reliable as a $120 flashlight as I see it. And after spending $13 to $25 on a solid flashlight I have money left over to buy a buttload of really good batteries. Works for me.