There is something to this. The color temperature of light definitely has an effect on our tolerance to observe it. This effect can be experienced driving at night and noting the difference between HID or LED headlights vs. lower color temp halogen headlights of oncoming traffic: the HID/LED headlights are generally found to be more distracting, and causing discomfort in some.
I have also observed this effect with reflections off snow-covered ground; light with a color temp of around 6,000 K seems more difficult to look at than warmer light (4,000 K).
Thanks for the
link you sent. Though the information may be dated and the product discussed never produced, it is relevant to this discussion. If anything it illustrates that there may be merit to taking another look - 120 lumens from a flashlight was considering "retina searing" back in 2007.