Jesus titty-fucking Christ boys, play nice and shit. Or don't, I guess.
I could only read so much of that garbage. Everyone, well...nearly everyone, in this thread has my respect for one reason or another, in some way or another.
As to the original question?
@REALSTYLES you know I am not a hater, but I think you forgot the give us the option to answer "I have no idea." and "who cares?" Personally, I feel like I sort of land in between those two.
I've considered both Far-Red and UVB pretty carefully, and I am convinced they both have benefits, but the lion's share of benefits seem to come from brute force photon bombardment, which makes COBs a great choice.
Efficiency isn't the only goal we can set for ourselves, though. COBs are totally badass, but they may not be the most optimal possible setup for producing the highest quality nugs. I think the jury is still out on what the best-of-all-possible-configurations is for THC and crop yield, and there's still a lot of learning we can do about artificial light and Cannabis cultivation, I'm sure of it.
I think it is worthwhile to try new things that may yield benefits.
Most of all I think we just like fucking with new gear. That's like 50% of the growing hobby; gear fetishism, and
we all have that in common, right?