LED's do tend to be more glare inducing. Part of it is the color spectrum - they are blue shifted compared to incandescent and have a narrower total spectrum - blue light scatters more, which is why a bright incandescent lamp will have more "throw" than an equally bright LED; it puts out some yellow light that isn't scattered. Some people are more sensitive to glare than others. You MIGHT have something going on with your eyes that is causing this - cataracts, etc...
The glariness of LEDs makes them a useful tactical tool. A bright LED flashlight will temporarily dazzle and hence disable an attacker a little bit better than an equally bright incandescent.
I've had MagLites in every vehicle I've owned forever. They don't really suck, but the modern LED flashlights are better for sure. The LEDBeam puts out twice the light of my 3D MagLite with about equal throw, has much longer run time on a set of batteries, and the bulb is almost completely shock resistant, unlike the incandescent ones.
What has turned me off to MagLites is the company's very aggressive litigation toward other flashlight companies. They label every flashlight that is a competitor as a patent infringement and because they have deep pockets they have put a couple of small flashlight companies with superior but very different products out of business by suing them.
Modern LED technology is progressing really fast. I predict that all automotive lighting will be LED based eventually.
