There are metal halides and they are attractive. I used to run a pair back in early 2000 with a pair of svho actinic. High noon look on a warm tropic afternoon right after first morning dive. Have to say love the look, feel, and overall vibe. Only two options, maybe three, if that is the look you are after:
1. MH bulb
2. Philips Coral Care Gen 2 LED
3. Kessil a360x using default Kessil Logic
Most all other form of lighting is going to be heavy on the blue spectrum especially if you are buying in the US market. For whatever reason we seem to lean blue. As you said there are a lot of choices here and you probably won't go wrong with any of them. I think it is going to come down to your requirements and then work from there. Me personally I'm biased because of the look I like which is high noon sun. I am not a fan of heavy blues. Having said that:
1. Kessil a360x. I'm biased and run 4 of these. This is probably the only light on the market today that has a multi role design. It can be mounted close to the surface for less light spill. It can me mounted higher for spread. It can be mounted high and a lens added (90 degree) to punch down through tall tanks or focus on a specific coral. Add their controller and now you unlock extra color spectrum and adjust as you see fit or leave it with Kessil's built in logic which will grow corals.
2. ATI Straton. ATI knows T5. They also went with a different approach in the panel design by adding more LED's but run them at lower power. Why? Better thermal control and extended life cycle. These two alone probably mean if taken care of will last probably the longest out of any on the market today with the exception of maybe Philips. More on that in a minute. Anyway these lights will be the benchmark moving forward as it relates to panels. Just my opinion. If I wasn't so early into my kessil's this would be one of the replacements I'd consider. They are just too good to ignore.
3. Philips coral care gen 2. Similar to ATI above they went with a flat panel design and no fans. No fan means less noise and point of failure. Passive cooling again similar to ATI but instead of a external power source they included it with the light unit. So bigger light, heavier light, but with ATI better thermal management. In the case of philips they are probably the cleanest solution with the best cable management due to no extra bricks. And we all know as hobbyist the number of power supply bricks we have is getting out of control. This here is huge. The main difference with Philips gen 2's is that they go for that more natural day look which is huge in EMEA but not so much here in the US. If you look at the BRS review while a great light and coverage they didn't like that they had to turn off more whites to get their favorite blue look. Again, this is a hobbyist choice and if you like blue look then no, this light isn't for you. Reference youtube and you will see Gen 1's mostly in EMEA. Terence over at neptune runs the Gen 1's and his tank is amazing. If you want to see the natural look of the lights that would be a good reference.
These three are all great performers and what I would consider looking at first. You may be asking why not the G5's? Well, I'd look at the G4's first because of the issues the newer units have had. Corrected I am sure but I still catch a thread here or there about the same issues. Probably worth checking them out since they are known and popular.
Anyway not sure what your option will end up being but these are my three suggestions to look at
A lot to look at and who knows what you may end up with. Remember money or cost doesn't mean success or quality.
