I spoke further with an instructor over the weekend. In brief, it’s a technical “grey area” for the R44, but stated clearly for the R66. Upon the EASA certification of the R66, it is explicitly stated it is OK for night VFR in normal production form.
https://www.easa.europa.eu/system/fi...6_Issue_02.pdf
This being done for the R66, it was apparently implied that the same applies to the R44 (I don’t know of anything specifically written though). The result is that many R44 owners have subsequently removed their “night kits” to get back the weight/drag they incurred.