This is in no way accurate just my experience. I really think it comes down to the fact the 14500 are cool as hell, because we all grew up with friggin dry cell AA. Alkaline batteries have been around for some time, but I swear in the 1970's, heavy duty cells seemed to be the ubiquitous AA, and alkaline was expensive. Then it was a short day of being amazed at how much better alkaline were in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, until the issue with leaks happened so much they became hated. Then NiCad AA rechargeable gave us many recharges and low capacity. Then the HSD NiMH were revolutionary. Then I assume ICR14500 LiCo cells appeared, but only for the intrepid few that were in the know, slowly becoming more popular as the secret got out. LSD NiMH AA appeared within maybe half a decade of 14500. Eneloops are only about 10 years old. I am still quite taken by Eneloops, only really discovering them less than 3 years ago, and this after being blown away by IMR14500 LiMn about a year or two before that. With Eneloops, it was an issue of decent capacity and no longer needing to charge the thing just before I needed it; they sat ready.
Now at least one label has increased 14500 capacity to 1000mAh. I am still waiting for the 14500 INR stock to reappear, and this is just for my own purpose of a couple AA Malkov hosts with Elite heads and MN02, which I doubt would interest many that want the 14500 for lumens. I want some compact low level incan runtime, that's my bag.
I am ok with Zebralight AA lights being AA only. And I'm not preaching to exclude 14500 support, I'm not, I just care less because Eneloops need so much less care than 14500. It is my own fault for irresponsibly abusing and killing at least 7x AW IMR14500, and they are hard to kill compared to unprotected LiCo, and AW seems to be gone. When Zebralight did support 14500, the driver had low voltage cut off, which is just great... but I was into other lights when those were available, and when I did get the SC5w OP, it killed me, so I assume the earlier drivers had the same issue, and passed on the ZL 14500 opportunity. It was with caution and some trepidation that I finally tried the SC5c II. Success... it does not destroy me. Even now the SC52F L2 AA is available again for a short time, and at discount, I am too much of a coward to try it because I expect the same results as I had with SC5w OP, and because I think the Mk II platform is probably superior. idk, just a suspicion, and we all have our biases. Fear and/or bias is always irrational.
Funny thing, I have a suspicion that with Li-ion, the problem I had with SC5w OP isn't there, because the SC62c doesn't seem to kill me; I kept it. And I am giving the SC53c a shake, and I am optimistic. But I am probably done with the ZL drivers in the hosts that are shaped like the SC52, assuming because of what it looks like, the entire generation of those might cause me migraine.
I think few are bathing ourselves in the light as a room lamp for hours on end as WalkIntoTheLight and I do. They are using flashlights more ordinarily, with the lumens pointed away from them and not bouncing all over the place and into their eyes. They probably think were weird. I'm ok with that, too.
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