While dull lights can be sufficient for empty road driving when you have a Ford Excursion practically attached to your rear bumper with its headlights lighting your interior nicely it is hard to see the road ahead. I need to work on my window tint some more, the dreaded rear window is next

However once done the tint will only let about 5% of light pass through it so night driving will become a little bit easier, I still should get some 35% tint for the front windows (not legal in my state, but works nicely).
I agree, turn the dash lighting down and focus on the road more, but again this is when I'm out of the city.
Guilty as charged, I upped the wattage in my "hyper white" bulbs as well. It is the only reason I can justify leaving the high beam bulbs in there. Well I also think it looks cool when the lights are off and my car has blue "eyes."