Unless you're trying to see in offroad unlit conditions, then having one or a few really bright lights is less helpful than having large-surface area lights, or a lot of dimmer lights, at least as far as being seen by others is concerned, as well as not causing them to be unable to see other things on the road (that don't have their own lights).
I get blinded by a number of lighting conditions on the road, like spotlights intended to light up signs but are pointed the wrong way (out to the street rather than toward the buildings and/or upward), and cars or trucks with improperly-installed HID lighting that doesn't have a shade to keep it focused down on the road instead of up into the eyes of oncoming traffic, and extra-bright security spotlights people have on their porches that suddenly come on from motion detection, and are pointed down the street instead of their lawn, driveway, house, etc.
I see other drivers get blinded by the same things, in some cases reacting by slowing down, but most often by swerving away from the light (possibly subconciously), which usually means to their right when it's caused by oncoming traffic. That endangers anyone to their right, which most often is either parked vehicles, the next lane of traffic, bicycles, or pedestrians.
Since typically the parked vehicles and next lane of traffic are fairly large and often well-lit (even if just by reflectors), they don't usually get hit because of this.
But bicycles are small and hard to see, even with reflectors, and despite rules and common sense don't usually have rear lights on them. Pedestrians are just about invisible, as they almsot never have any kind of lighting or reflectors on them, and often wear darker clothing. So both of those either get hit or nearly so when the drivers swerve away from over-bright lighting, because the driver cannot now see quite as well as before, for a moment. You could argue that these types of targets either ought not to be there (pedestrians) or should be lit better (bicycles) but the problem wouldnt' happen as much if the overly-bright lights weren't causing the problem in the first place.
On DayGlo Avenger, when I had the large-surface area CCFL lighting from a scanner as my main be-seen headlight, I didn't have much of a problem with people seeing me even from quite a ways off, but it didnt' blind them either, when up close. I got a lot of comments that it was "bright" but when watching people's reactions to it they didnt' react like they did to actually really-bright lights on other vehicles, by swerving away or slowing down, but rather mostly like they would to normal headlights.
It isn't a really scientific test or study, but it has been my experience so far that more surface area of dimmer lights does more to help someone see you than a single point-source bright light (or several).
If your goal is to see other things, or see farther, then that's a different thing.
It might still be accomplishable with the same end result of not blinding, using multiple smaller lights with long throws, focused onto one area ahead of you, though.
40W total LED 
