This is the single most common upgrade in the category and it is a downgrade almost every time. The reason is optical, not a matter of quality.

A reflector is designed around a filament

The bowl’s curvature is calculated for light leaving one exact point in space.

That point is where the halogen filament sits, and nowhere else.

An LED emitter is not in that place

LED chips sit on flat planes on either side of the bulb body, not in a single point.

So the reflector gathers light from the wrong origin and aims it in the wrong directions.

What the driver sees versus what happens

The scattered light makes the foreground and the surroundings look bright.

Down the road, where you need distance, there is often less usable light than before.

And the glare goes to everyone else

The cut-off that kept light out of oncoming eyes is gone, which is why you get flashed.

It is also what turns a modification into a genuine safety problem in traffic.

The honest alternative

A projector retrofit or an assembly designed as an LED unit from the start.

It costs more than a bulb because it replaces the part that actually does the work.