I can't speak for all of them, but the adaptive lights I've used do keep the edges of the road lit up as if using old-style highbeams whilst dimming in the middle of the road to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. Weird at first, but super useful for country driving where there might be deer / kangaroos loitering.

European, have these on my Volvo - they are great. In fact, they illuminate more of the side of the road than regular headlights.

Basically, they split the beam into multiple sections and if it detects an oncoming car, it turns off the section that would shine towards the oncoming car, but keeps on the section that shines towards the side of the road.

Another thing - if you are driving behind another car, then the headlights don't shine into the rear-view mirror of the car in front, but rather around it.

Yeah, being in the US I have not used these headlights, but I sure hope the image in the article is a bad rendition. That beam is way too narrow.

It shouldn't be any worse than normal high beams, and in fact should be better, since it can still illuminate the sides of the road when there's an oncoming car, or a car driving in front of you.

https://youtu.be/r3gMna26BZg?t=462