To be honest, they use it cause they think its going to save them in electricity The added bonus that the panels dont add much heat is another excuse they use, i'll get into that further down.
But let me break it all down for you.
Lets say for sake of argument, I am a licensed producer and I sell my product to dispensaries. An ounce of top quality product that I grow, goes for a price of $200/zip
With that information in mind, take into consideration that running a 600w HPS costs on overage around North America, about $35, just to run the light 12 hours a day for a montnh. So theoretically, if you had an 8 week strain, it would cost you $70 in electricity to run your HPS for your flowering period.
Now most people dont realise that you need double the LED watts to match half the HID watts.. so 1200w LED = 600w HPS. So they go and buy a 600w LED panel thinking that its going to produce the same as their 600w HPS, but use half the power. Its no secret that using half the amount of power, will only grow you half the size of plants! So why people think that a light that draws 300w will grow the same amount of buds as a ligh that draws 600w, is beyond me.
This example works even better if you are like me, and grow single plants under a single 600w HPS.
So you flower out your plants under HID's and you average 18zips per plant from your 600w HPS, but after flowering under the LED, you only got 10 zips of dried buds (probably an accurate estimate from one plant under a 600w LED panel with a 2 month veg period).
Well, in theory here, under the LED I have just harvested 8 ounces less, and as a licensed producer, thats lost income for me in the form of $1600!!
lets do a little bit more math. $35/month for your HPS times that by 12, you get $420. So in one year, you pay $420 (average) for your HPS light. well in one harvest, I just lost $1600 in potential income, which would pay for almost 4 years of flowering!!
How LED growers manage to increase their yields, is they stuff as many plants as they possibly can under the one LED and hope that the added tiny wispy plants will increase the yield, when all you do is increase the amount of work you have for yourself in watering, trimming, training etc. They they realise that they still haven't really increased their yields, so they come to the realization that they need more LED watts, so they double what they have, and it costs them a fortune.
Like you said originally, there are some decent grows using LED's But they are using like 2000-5000 LED watts which pulls anywhere from like 1000w to probably close to 3000w from the wall.. sure they are effective at using less power, but at the cost of less yield.
I've found that only when you match the power draw from the wall with LED's, will you match the yields on the scales at the end of the day.
LED's
DO produce less heat, but they still produce heat that is not vented or ducted anywhere but right into the growin environment. Which is good because when you grow with LEDs you need to add heat to the grow room. Theres a reason why MH and HPS are so effective. They produce more heat. Heat which the cannabis plant uses to perform its functions more efficiently. When you add too much heat tho, this works counter-effectively. The cannabis uses the heat to transpire. Which basically looks like your leaves sweating when you move them around. you'll wonder where the water came from. thats transpiration. With the heat of MH and HPS, the plants transpire at a faster rate than under LEDs (unless you're adding heat like i said) and thus they take in more water and nutrients, which in turn promote faster growth. Having your environment dialed in is key to maintaining the right temperature/RH% range during each stage of the plants life. With the temps in optimal range, your plants transpire at a rate that promotes the fastest growth possible!
With LEDs producing so much less heat, its easy for a plant to take much longer to grow to maturity because of the fact it doesn't need to intake as much water/nutrients. I noticed this with the one attempt at an LED grow i tried.
But really, if someone wants to get an LED, they are more than welcome to.. But i dont want to be that guy that said i told ya so!
Having read this, i hope that you can see past 90% of the excuses that growers go with LED's and see some of the good reasons that there is to LEDs. like if you live somewhere stupidly hot all the time.. no way you'll be able to grow with HID's unless you have an insane AC unit! LED's will be your best bet.. but with how much they cost, and how many panels you would need to match HID lighting, the return of investment is non existent!