Looks veyr nice Daube. I like the second one better, but there's little difference. The second is a little darker which maybe make the lights stand out a little better ...
Though I think a light mod would be nice for that bird ... it's horrible.
I agree with you, the default lights are.... really not that nice :/
I'll start looking for alternative lights, there were some addons for this, like in FS9, but I wonder if they are FSX SP2-compatible :/
For the bloom, it's not that high because I tried avoiding some exagerated effect. The "darkening" that you describe completely changes the visual impression during night flights. Night really gets dark, and the contrast with the panel lights make you feel the need to switch them OFF as soon as possible ;D
Actually, on the realism point of view, this last point is not bad at all.