KM I have LED bulbs that flicker just minimally at 100 Hz below 0.1% (almost not measurable) and they still hurt.
Have you tested / compared different temperatures, e.g., 3000 vs 6500 K, and CRIs?
With regard to color temperature:
...the use of warm colour temperatures at high illumination levels yields an unpleasant insipid yellow hue to the surroundings which disturb the feeling of well-being. The matching of the illumination level to the desired colour temperature is a key point that is often overlooked in modern lighting design.
With regard to CRI:
Consider the appearance of people and objects under daylight. They tend to look great, right? Well, the CRI of daylight is around 100. Contrast this to an orange street light, where it’s hard to discern the color of anything. That street light has a CRI close to 0.
Maybe flickering is a red herring, and I am going nuts because of poor CRI and illuminance / color temperature combination?