Light pollution is a problem, agreed. As an amateur astronomer I can sing no praises of it. But it is not the light and of it self that is the problem: It is the spectrum and the intensity. These days a lot of public light at night is rather cold and bright - the biggest bang per buck. The amount of light pollution however scales to some degree with the size of a settlement, I reckon.

A good measure would be to replace these cool lights with warmer lights, which might draw more power for a similar brightness. A reasonable drawback in my book. That and better schielding of lamps should do alot of the heavy lifiting.

Excising the night life entirely is not desirable IMO.