Although I haven't anthropomorphized lighting, I can DEFINITELY relate to being extremely fascinated by various lighting since the age of 3 years old.
For me, that is also when my lighting interest began, all starting with the single lamp Preheat F40T12 strip fixture in my Grandma's basement, before
the interest went insane when I encountered Rapid Start while at preschool. I've been at 100% in terms of lighting since then. This increased even more
when I discovered my first EOL show in school, in 2nd grade. (Rapid Start again, specifically Louvered fixtures.)
I've got absolutely no shame, at all, regarding me talking about my lighting interest. I usually talk about lighting to pretty much all of my friends or
coworkers, like how I talk about sportcars, trucks or motorcycles. I even go as far as showing them my lighting project at my apartment, etc, and I'm
making plans on bringing my friends over to my apartment soon, and showing them my living room lighting project results, showing off the start up flicker,
etc. I guess everyone is different, but, I don't see lighting as a weird thing to have an interest in, at all. There's far too many epic things about it.
By the way... is this really Off-Topic?

The current GEs aren’t very good, the Sylvanias are worse. The older ones of both brands (pre-2018) were much better.

What about Sylvania or GE?

As far as General Purpose A19s go, TCP has been the most reliable I’ve used with zero failures in the past 10 years. Followed by Philips/Signify (2014-2026) with very minimal failures.

Yet another excellent new video from Styropyro, never heard of or seen this deminstrated before but the result is stunning! I have definitely observed the effects of triboluminescence between two pieces of quartz smacked together, but I never thought that doing such a thing in vacuum would make a difference. Very cool in my opinion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y-9GbsS9Fg

In your opinion, what’s the best brand of LED bulbs on the market from your experience, and the best specific bulbs (such as the best snow cone vs filament LED)

Using their power from that catalog, their equation constant "C" derived from their SOX-E ballast specs (not gonna be the same for SOX ballast but hopefully close enough), their total power factor (also taken from SOX-E specs, again not gonna be the same but hopefully close enough) and the rest of their specifications put into a system of equations following this structure:

ZBal = (C * √(OCV^2 - VLamp^2)) / ILamp,
(VLamp)(ILamp)(PF) = PLamp

where VLamp is x and ILamp is y, I arrived at the following approximations:

26W SOX-E on 480VOC 35W SOX ballast:
60V, 0.61A

36W SOX-E on 480VOC 55W SOX ballast:
79V, 0.6A

66W SOX-E on 480VOC 90W SOX ballast:
86V, 0.94A

91W SOX-E on 650VOC 135W SOX ballast:
101V, 1.13A

131W SOX-E on 650VOC 180W SOX ballast:
188V, 0.92A

These are values calculated for the reference ballasts, which are linear impedances at 480 and 650VOC respectively. As is the case for all lamps but especially for LPS, these reference ballasts are usually never what is actually produced. These values I have calculated are wrong until proven correct. Again if anyone has the voltages or currents for these lamps on SOX ballasts please do let me know.

GE and Philips. Preferably snow cone bulbs. Filament LEDs just don’t have as long of a service life as the snow cone lamps of the same class. Snow cone LEDs are pretty reliable if you don’t buy the basic ones from name brands or buy the store brands (e.g. EcoSmart, Great Value).

The non-warm glow Philips filament LED lamps seem pretty reliable. Higher end Philips snow cone LEDs are good (warm glow or not). GE makes decent snow cone and reflector lamps but their filament lamps are junk. That’s why GE LEDs often get a bad reputation. They don’t make good quality filament LED bulbs, and the older SMD-based all glass bulbs were even worse (those dimmed to a faint blue color at EOL).

When it comes to EcoSmart in particular, the filament lamps seem better. EcoSmart snow cone LEDs fail all the time. The filament versions actually seem better. The unbranded Home Depot bulbs are worse than the ones branded as EcoSmart. Do not buy those. I’ve been to a place where they burnt out before an older incandescent bulb, and they were probably under a year old.

Feit’s older LEDs were great and lasted a long time but their newer stuff is junk so I can’t recommend them anymore. Utilitech bulbs, the older ones from Feit and Lighting Science were great quality, but the latest versions are probably junk but I don’t know since I never tried them.

Sylvania’s ECOLED and contractor series LED bulbs are HORRIBLE from what I’ve heard, but I heard that the higher end Sylvania products are fairly decent. Not sure how good the LEDs from contractor grade brands (e.g. Satco, Halco, Bulbrite) are.

Join the club here

I have had fascinating with light bulb since I was a baby.  Fast forward to now, I still have interest in light bulbs and whatnot.  My first light bulb collection started in 1973.  Despite my eccentric interest, it never wanes and still with me.  For long time, I thought I had an unusual hobby that nobody has until I discovered this site in 2009.  Now, my eccentric hobby is no longer an unusual concept of crazy collection.

GE or Philips. Both are pretty reliable from my experience. For EcoSmart, Utilitech, and Great Value, you get what you pay for. Cheaper bulbs and shorter life.

Don’t buy the Philips Warm Glow filament LEDs, those have a very high failure rate where the whiter filament fails leaving only the warmer one working. Try to avoid the cheapest non-dimmable Philips LEDs as well. You’re better off getting a cheap EcoSmart or Great Value bulb that’ll last three years than getting a Philips warm glow filament lamp that’ll last one. The warm glow snow cone LEDs, however, are good bulbs. Otherwise Philips is good. GE’s snow cone bulbs are good but their filament ones have a relatively high failure rate. Avoid the “basic” line as well. Every “basic” line LED from even the big name manufacturers is something to avoid.

Haven’t heard much about Utilitech but the older Utilitech Pro line of bulbs was pretty good. Not sure about the newer ones. The EcoSmart snow cone LEDs are junk but I’ve heard good things about the filament lamps from EcoSmart.

Great Value is junk too, and in my expeience those usually flicker badly before they go out. I’ve never had a Great Value LED that simply died in the sense that it stopped working. They usually flicker first, then go out, and then randomly began to work again. I believe the ones I used were made by TCP. I don’t think TCP makes GV LEDs anymore.

Avoid buying cheap products off of Amazon because they can be safety hazards in some cases. Some LED bulbs sold on Amazon aren’t UL listed, so be careful.