Have to agree with you Steady State. We just did a retrofit on a community hall and put in over 100 LED fixtures. Not the cheap home depot ones, but high price high quality commercial products. They are close, but just not there yet. The quality of light still doesn't compare to a halogen fixture which sells at a fraction of the price. Up here in Canada, the heat byproduct is a bonus. It's going to take a century to make up the cost differnce in the fixtures with the amount of energy they save based on the usage.
LED definately has its place and the technology is improving rapidly, but as of now, it's not the solution for every situation. Problem is, just like our American friends, our regulators up here think they know better. The reality of it is most of them don't know how to turn a light bulb in.