With all the todo about the regulations that ended some of the production of the standard IC blub, it has brought to light a question. Why have frosted bulbs become the standard?
I admit to liking clear bulbs, one where you can see the filament. To me it is almost a work of art. Halogens also come in clear and have their beauty, though a bit more cluttered. LED’s, well a few, also come in clear and are very nice ascetically.
I do like the ‘point source’ of light better then a undistinguished ‘light blub’ that frosted and CF blubs produce and it the right lamp can produce a very nice crystal like light scattering effect.
Point sources of light can be painfully bright, if the fitting is one that permits a direct view of the light source - for these, I would always tend toward a frosted lamp. In fact, because that’s most of the light fittings I’ve ever had, I only kept the frosted kind in stock. (I do agree that the clear ones are beautiful though)