You’re absolutely right. I didn’t intend to imply that excessively bright stimuli (such as when the ground is snow or concrete or sand and the sun is directly overhead), couldn’t be too bright even when adapted as far as possible.
What I meant (and should have stated more precisely/clearly, not using the word “only”) was rather that, at the intensity of an iPad screen, adaptation should make any hurting stop. The iPad screen is several orders of magnitude dimmer than the brightest sunny days. Light adaptation takes us pretty darn far.
> ... so the times when eyes “hurt” are basically only when going from being dark-adapted to suddenly looking at something bright
(emphasis added)
Obviously I realize that pupils adapt, but I read the post to imply that there is no such thing as absolutely too bright.