I get they aren’t the same as halides, but don’t the “white” LEDs fill in a lot of the “missed” spectrum?Yes but @jda will also tell you about how metal halides fill in a lot more of the gaps in spectrum that LEDs miss.
Metal halide is more like the sun in that you can push higher PAR and not damage your coral. I believe the sun measures close to 2000 PAR in most shallow tropical seas. I’d imagine it’s even higher in the Red Sea.