I use a Smart (or similar) on the rear in flash mode - sometimes with a steady red as well - for my normal riding/commuting. If riding in a group for any period of time (other than the 'gathering at the lights' moments) then it goes onto steady.
I have a steady beam on the front, with a low intensity flash as well.
I use my Dinotte 600 quite often. Low beam or low beam/flash (the Dinotte has both) combo in traffic, medium or high beam on dark and twisty roads.
The lights themselves aren't the problem - it is how they're set up/angled that is the problem.
As for a steady beam being easier to judge distance from, IIRC the TRL research doesn't support that, which is one reason why flashing lights were permitted on the roads in the first place.
And as for:
If a rider has only one lamp, a steady lamp is easier for other road users to position. It gets done by driver autopilot, normally. This applies to front and rear. Other road users are, after all, used to looking for other lit vehicles, which have steady big bright white lights front and red lights rear.
I don't them judging on autopilot - I want them to consciously note where I am. Drivers operating on autopilot is one reason why we have so many 'SMIDSYs' - drivers 'automatically seeing' but not consciously acting on what is around them.