Nothing simplistic about that. Just straightforward realistic expectations.
You can't ask any light to do everything. But what you are looking to find is pretty easy to accomplish.
These days LED has pretty much eclipsed all the other tech out there. Halogen makes more heat than it does light. HID is better but at this point it really offers nothing that LED does not and the HID offerings are limited to say the least. Plus with LED if you want more output you can simply add emitters to the unit more until you get the desired level. Not as easy to do with HID unless you actually add additional "lights".
Laser Stimulated Chip beats all the other tech, but it seems that market interest has never really picked up and there are not a lot of LSP lights out there and they are all long range "pencil beams".
So... IMHO you want LED. you do not need projectors unless you are going for a fog light pattern or a "low beam" with razor sharp horizontal cut off (which it does not sound like you are)
LED reflector is where you are at now then. Some of the newer LED reflector style lights have teen tiny "projector like" lenses over each of the individual emitters. With the inherent 120-140 degree forward cast of the LED emitters, these work well to get a tighter focus than reflectors by themselves.
My personal experience is that for a good medium range light with lots of side scatter to light up the ditches and whatever else might be off to the side as well as pushing decently forward down the road notably further than your high beams, plain old LED reflector designs work well, are plentiful and inexpensive.
To accomplish the goal that you mention I have been perfectly satisfied with lights like these
These type lights are almost always varying numbers (depending on the size of the housing) of 5 watt emitters with reflectors and no auxiliary lensing. The wider lighting is basically "side scatter" due to the inability of this approach to achieve real narrow focusing. They still have a hot spot in the center to throw a more light straight ahead and the end result is usually pretty decent close, mid and sometimes even longish range lighting all in one light.
I am running a pair on one of my rigs that basically turns the world in front of me into daylight well beyond even what I need for reaction time at 75 MPH when a moose is in the road out in the pitch black. And they also throw a full 180 degree spread. But... they are a bit over 9 inches in diameter with 45 emitters each and pull an honest 215-220 watts of power EACH.
There are also some out there using multiple (but obviously fewer) 10 watt emitters. Usually with some sort of auxiliary lensing over each emitter. These tend to focus down the road better, but usually toss less to the sides. If this is better or worse depends on what you want and need. I used to prioritize long reach into the night over lighting up off to the sides as much. But at some point... sometime after hitting a couple of different moose and dodging many many more... I realized that those bastards sometimes wait in the ditch to jump out in front of you rather than just planting themselves on the centerline a mile ahead and waiting.
The 3-4 inch restriction to fit in your bumper limits you a bit in terms of just how much light you can put out there. Try to get something with the highest number of emitters in whatever size light you get.
Avoid fluted lenses/covers. You can get all the spread that you need with clear lenses and you lose less light to the lens that way.
Do not pay too much attention to whatever claim of wattage anyone might toss out for their LED lights. *Almost* every one selling lights is either out and out lying, or carefully distorting these numbers. And if anyone claims that their offering of xx watts is making significantly more light than any other unit of xx watts. Don't believe it. If they claim some sort of different tech, with weird acronyms and abbreviations and terms no one else is using... without explaining any of it... It's probably bull****. The Chinese vendors are not really any worse than the American vendors about this, but they are more shameless and funnier when you try to read it.
Avoid the cheapest of the cheap on Amazon and Aliexpress. Some of the cheap junk looks exactly like the better stuff until you hold it in your hands, or even open it up.
*Personally* I avoid the boutique vendors as well for the most part. Not at all saying that some of that stuff is not amazing. But for what it sounds like you are looking for, you can save a lot of money and still most likely surpass your needs and expectations with lights in the mid tier price zone.
Mark...
