As a slight tangent (but hopefully a liiiiiittle helpful), the flashlight market has radically transformed in the last decade or two because of LED technology. In the old days, flashlights were sold on design, materials, and brand name, because every old guard manufacturer could make one (or several), with different levels of material quality, battery sizes, etc., but all using basic incandescent bulbs. There wasn’t much to actually differentiate the lighting output; basically, the bigger ones were brighter and lasted longer simply because they had bigger batteries. They all had similar bulbs.
But then LEDs really started to, well, shine. They unfortunately also got a lot more complicated. The difference between one LED and another can be extreme; several orders of magnitude difference in brightness, with a lot of variance in efficiency (visible light output per watt input). But the actual R&D behind LEDs is incredibly difficult (it’s more like microchip design than mass manufacturing), and there’s only a tiny handful of companies in the world that actually do that (like Cree/Wolfspeed, Nichia, and a few others). It’s this emitter that really sets one (med or high end) flashlight apart from another.
At the same time, lithium-ion battery technology also drastically improved, both in price and performance, and helped drive newer generations of LED emitters that old AAs couldn’t keep up with.
The rest of the flashlight is basically a heat sink + enclosure around the emitter, and it’s what the flashlight “manufacturers” are left with. They basically get to choose a form factor (how big, headlight or handheld, what kind of battery it should take, whether to weatherproof/waterproof it) and then stick one or more of the fancy emitters in there.
On Amazon, a generic search will lead you to a mess of undifferentiated race-to-the-bottom lights from no-name manufacturers using unnamed emitters. If you’re willing to spend a little more, though ($50-$100), there’s quite a large market of enthusiast lights available.
The enthusiast forum https://www.candlepowerforums.com/ is very helpful for understanding the different types, and for asking for specific recommendations. (Yes, there are flashlight enthusiasts… imagine a SDMB full of nothing but lighting geeks.)
In particular, if you find a quality light that takes an 18650 lithium-ion battery (as opposed to AA or C), that is usually a good sweet spot between performance/price/weight/battery life/replaceability. And Cree emitters used to be some of the best, but they got sold to a holding company in the last few years and are seemingly exiting the LED business. Not sure who’s considered top-notch these days; maybe Nichia? Luminus?
Off the top of my head, these are flashlight brands I’ve liked (may be a few years out of date):
It basically comes down to temperature regulation (how effectively the flashlight body can cool the LED, which directly impacts its reliability/longevity), battery management (fancy electronics to keep the power/voltage curve consistent), and general build quality/quality control.
Costco also carries a range of flashlights, usually sold under the Duracell, Coleman, or Coast brands: https://www.costco.com/s?keyword=flashlight They’re not really an enthusiast light shop like the above stores, but they also don’t carry junk (unlike Amazon or Home Depot). They aim squarely at the “above average quality at an affordable price” segment, so it might be exactly what you want? Shop in-store if you can to get a better feel for the build quality and size of the thing. Try to get one with a lithium-ion battery.
Like you, I really hate all the different modes modern flashlights have. I guess they all feel the need to cram as many features in there as they can, which has the side effect of making the light annoyingly complicated to use. I just want it to turn on, damn it!
In my experience, some of the Nitecore lights are easier to use in that regard. While most of them do have an annoying strobe mode (sad), some of them at least have dedicated switches and sliders so you can separately control brightness from on/off and different modes. Their website isn’t super clear about that, unfortunately, but I think their customer support is decent if you want to reach out and ask for something easy to use. Or fill out the candlepowerforum recommendations checklist: Flashlight Recommendation Checklist - Updated MK II | Candle Power Flashlight Forum
You also still can find incandescents, they’re just a lot less efficient than LEDs. (Meaning bigger batteries for less light output and much shorter battery life.) Less complicated though, that’s for sure!
