That's like observing that studio and movie hot lights were a '30's thing, as they have had several rediscoveres over the decades.
I used hot lights for some shots in the late 1980's, and they did a good job.
I have a small, corded hot light with a 'focusing' iris that is great for putting a lot of light on a generally small or distaint subject.
Ring lights, those with hundreds of watts going through them, to the battery pack unit I used long ago in the 1980's with my Hasselblad 135 macro lens, etc and now, more and more powerful LED offerings from makers like Lume Cube are reopening a wider use, through analog and digit&( kit, such as video self-filming for blog or website, which will be attractive also to analog movie camera users, "innovating" their medium, again and again.
One tip to break up that doughnut caught in someone's eyes or product, can be as simple as making an abstract pattern (leaving the lens opening) with various optical fibers inside or outside the doughnut shape and powered by a battery powered flash strobe, the ring light burst itself, etc.
Imagine making a round eye with webs holding it in place or a really funky lit eye looking back at your model.
Yellow and a White stick colour will work best with b&w films, reds, greens, etc for colour film.
I'll add that the ring light profile can likely be altered by getting a can or two of party/rave glow sticks, with the little plastic sections of vinyl tubing, used to link them together or into bracelets in a lights down event or firefly catching in the summer dark.
(I also used them last September as straight glow in the dark sticks, placing one each at the base of a stair step in a RV so my Rozeann and I did not trip or miss a step up or down each step.)
The ring light can be turned on it's various side angle to make an oval, with or without bounce cards to catch the spilled light back into your photograph.
IMO.
