No, dude, I didn't for a second consider TM to be Johnny-come-lately, like me. From his post he looks to me like incurable case of WWWOL*. Having your lights turned off in cloud has some beneficial effect on bulb filament longevity, it reduces generator load, decreases fuel consumption & carbon emissions and all other neat stuff tree-hugging-hippies care about. However, unlike military dudes, I'm not allowed to land on unlighted runways so night vision is not of major concern for me. Landing lights do enable me to see the runway in last 300 ft of approach or so, but more important to me is that they enable potential conflicting traffic to realize I'm pointing my nose at them and clear away in a good time. So I really want them to be ablaze as I emerge from the cloud below FL100.
Alas, being severely young and inexperienced, I'm completely unable to estimate my remaining distance to the far end of cloud. This shortcoming of mine has made me unable to use landing light in sparing manner. I would really appreciate if some old hands share his method of measuring the distance remaining in cloud.
*When We Was On Lightnings - English Electric, of course