I've never had a surefire handgun light, (have surefire on my AR) but that being said, I love my TLR-1
I think it's the right amount of lumens. between 150-200. I don't want the super high lumen lights on my handguns. I do have a 500+ on my AR for the throw outdoors.
I learned a lot going around my house in the middle of the night in pitch black with a WML on my handgun. People have made the case before of preferring a hand held light so that you don't cover a target with your muzzle before you identify them. Well, fact of the matter is, you don't do that with a WML either. You don't want to use the main focus of the light to see in the dark. You use the splash. If you want to see down a hallway, point the focus at the corner and the splash will illuminate the rest.
Mostly the focus of the WML is pointed a bit in front of you, at the ground, and you use the splash to see. In the middle of the night, even with the normal 150ish lumen model, pointing the focus right at a wall will blind yourself with the reflected light. Let alone something in the 500 range.
Use the splash to see, then when you see your target you use the focus to identify/blind the target. Try it yourself. You'll be surprised how much your own WML can blind YOU. You need to learn how to use the splash.
That being said, surprised how many of you guys like the strobe. I feel like the strobe would confuse me almost as much as it does my target. I feel like blinding light in their eyes confuses me, and leaves me with the upper hand. The strobe, whether in my eyes or not, would still effect me. But, that's just me.