Ehh not sure I was strong enough actually. Use candles if you like, personally whatever floats your boat. I actually do own a few candles (women seem to love to give these as presents) and I have candle lanterns to enclose them in. I also have a silly little tea light lantern that was a gift from a loved one so I hang on to it. Reading from candle light is crap and probably will make you blind. If you want a romantic evening, they are great. I wouldn't want to have to do anything other than have sex or eat dinner by the light of a candle though. Kerosene lanterns, even the cheaper ones, put out decent light, my guess would be 25 - 50 watts. They are not quite as bright as a light bulb and probably someone actually has the numbers. My Aladdin lamp and multifuel lamps are far superior even to the regular kerosene lantern. Standard candles burn quickly, the long burning ones are nice but overpriced. I think the average person is much better served by skipping candles and going with something much better. You can have multiple means of lighting but really, candles are just not worth the effort. I suppose we could all use olive oil burning lamps like they did in Jesus' day, they were the precursors to wax candles, but what's the point? To me you can easily overdo the "right tool" argument but just plain overbuying. You can have a 22 rifle to kill rats, 222 to kill rabbits, a 223 for a battle rifle, a 30/30 for pigs, etc. It all depends on how much crap you wanna have to purchase and put away. Anyways hardly matters, put away candles if that makes you happy. Personally I will go with 19th century technology or better instead of sticking with first century technology.
