Welcome to the board.
PIAA's stuff is all sizzle and no steak; all litterbox and no cat. There is no validity to the baloney they peddle about "kelvin ratings" and "color temperature" and "whiter light" and all the rest of it. It is pure marketing with no legitimacy, and the quality of the product ranges from mediocre to poor. Internet "reviews" are not a reliable source of information; most people do not know what the heck they are talking about and will talk (or type) a blue streak about "whiter" this and "kelvin" that and basically just regurgitate the promotional BS they've been fed.
The Osram Rallye 65w will give you a whole lot better seeing (more light) than any bulb PIAA wants to sell you. Those "terrible" Philips Xtremes you complain about are actually one of the best bulbs on the market, and will likewise leave the PIAA in the dust, and will give you much brighter and "whiter" light than the stock long-life bulbs without exceeding the power (current draw) and heat levels the car's lamps and wiring were designed to handle. "Whiter" in quotes because that is a meaningless marketing term based on a basic misunderstanding of what we think we're seeing (but aren't). A more accurate way of saying it is "less brown". And yes, lifespan on any of these bulbs is going to be a lot shorter than the stock long-life bulb, that's what extra light (or minimal legal light through the light-blocking blue glass) costs.
Bear in mind that you cannot make your halogen headlamps look like anything other than halogen headlamps and have them stay effective, safe, and legal. Different light-making technologies (filament, HID, LED) look different by nature, that's just the way it is, and that's fine because it really doesn't matter what your headlamps look like -- whoever thinks it matters is out to lunch, and the people who see your car on the road truly do not care what specific shade of white your headlamps appear to put out. The lights on a car are not fashion accessories, they're life safety equipment. Focus on optimizing their real, actual output in terms of lumens and beam focus. Most car crashes happen at night, and so do most traffic deaths and injuries, because most of us outdrive our low beams routinely. Saying you're willing to sacrifice light output in order to have your lights look a particular way is kind of like refusing to wear a seatbelt because it might muss your shirt.
