My theory is the manufacturers' marketing departments went to the engineers and said "we can't sell cars with safe headlights anymore, please make the next model's headlights seem brighter than they actually are."
Blue-white headlights are actually much less functional for human vision than yellow/amber headlights, so the engineers had to use the regulatory loophole to exponentially increase the output of their marketing-imposed blue-white lights.
But I generally agree - ever since I got PRK eye surgery ultra white car lights are hard for me to handle. My wife has always been sensitive to light (she has lighter eyes), so that goes to show that there's certainly a range of tolerance for this and it's really a safety issue.
Inspections are a good idea, but I'd like to see some control over what can be sold to prevent the installation in the first place.