Despite those efforts, LED bulbs in the UK were very expensive and not very common for years after they started getting cheap and widespread over here. I started buying Philips and Cree LED bulbs around 2010 when they were $40+ each and then within about a year they were half that and not long after they were just a few dollars each. I remember my friend over there lamenting at the lack of variety and high cost relative to what I could get which I thought was unusual given he was paying literally 3 times what I was for electricity and the US is not exactly known for jumping on the cutting edge "green" technology bandwagon.
There are definitely still applications where incandescent makes sense, but for the most part they were obsolete for general illumination 20 years ago. CFL had its issues but it was good enough that I had converted over to them by 1999. Regarding on/off cycles, that was an issue for CFLs but it should not be a problem for LEDs, no more so than with filament lamps at least. There are LED sign bulbs that work fine with chasers/scintilators that flash them rapidly all night long.
Sorry, my original post you replied to, was poorly written in that respect, so I've retrospectively attempted to edit it. I was being purely hypothetical with the first list. The UK government, did NOT do any such thing.
Because we were part of the EU, at that time, so the EU made the laws for LED lighting.
I was trying to show, how it COULD have taken place in the UK, if we were NOT part of the EU, at that time.
Sorry again, for any confusion I've caused.
You're right. LED lighting can handle, most/all jobs, required of it.
But people have their homes and businesses, in certain ways. So many people would much prefer to just replace the burnt out tungsten filament bulb, with a new 50p (£0.50) light bulb, than pay £10 or whatever for a new fangled LED light, which they DON'T understand, or want to touch with a very long barge pole.
Analogy:
Some people like/love the new (probably around 40+ years old now), digital display watches. But it is a sort of 'Marmite', you either love it, or hate it, type of situation. Whereas, other people still much prefer, the mechanical/analogue type of watch (display), even if the Quartz electronics and batteries, are still inside it and ultimately making it work.
I.e. Although you personally really like LED lamps, and have gotten on very well with them. That doesn't mean that everyone else does. Other people, have different preferences, financial situations, house/dwelling types, priorities. So, they may not be prepared (at the moment), to change all their lighting systems, to LED ones.
Hence new laws, effectively forcing LED lamps (and similar), onto everyone. Regardless of if they like it, and are ready or NOT. Is a rather horrible way of going about things (in my opinion).
Which seems to have happened in the EU.