In tomato cultivation, but let’s say in all cultivations with artificial light, total or partial, what makes tomatoes grow are not the micromoles of the lamps but those that the plant receives. If narrow optics are not used, the lamp can also give many micromoles but many, many are lost. Where? In the sky, around the greenhouse, in the corridors, on the ground (between one row and another). And with them also the energy that powers the lamp is lost and is not optimized for vegetative growth.
Only if you don’t use narrow optics you can’t put light in the middle of the row where natural light doesn’t reach. So the inner leaves “eat” the micromoles of the others, like all the leaves in the shade.
In its STL H GROWLIGHT line, LuxLED has developed special ultraclear silicone optics that allow the light to be directed only on the crop.