You'll probably find the room is better lit with a single bare 100W, or
even 60W, light bulb hanging in the middle of the room. Not that I'm
suggesting this, but it's a useful comparison to show how inefficient
downlighters are for general lighting.

We used to have a couple of 4 foot fluorescent lamps in there - they
were "passable" but not particularly pretty.

There's something about single-source illumination I really dislike -
for instance I did away with the centre lamp in the living room, and
it's lit via 3 wall lamps (2 single 60W, one double 60W).