Very interesting topic, and an important one for any hobbyist community as a whole.
As I see it, there are two main "problems" with a hobby such as flashaholism. One is collecting. Of course, collecting anything per se is only as weird as collecting anything else, really. But the thing is it quite literally constitutes a gratuitous excess. The other problem, which is rarer and more annoying to outsiders, is the issue of a hammer looking for nails. There are times when you need a flashlight, times when you are expected to have it, and then there are times where you use it just because you like using it, and are thus looking for any thinkable opportunity to do it. It may be rational to an extent, too, so from a flashaholic's point of view something like using a flashlight instead of a ceiling lamp to save a few cents' worth of electricity bills (and then spend hundreds of dollars on another flashlight) might be completely normal. It's only when you analyze everything without attempts to justify your behavior that you understand what flashaholism is and why it's odd. There's a lot less embarrassment when you just come to terms with the fact that you collect and carry excessive(-ly large) flashlights just because you like them and like using them, instead of rationalizing it to the extent of "this one is for when I walk a dog so it's floody, this one is for when it's dark on my porch so I only need little light, and this one is for when someone jumps me from behind". (I'm purposefully exaggerating here.)
There's a difference between, say, owning a set of screwdrivers ranged by their head size and taking them where you'll definitely need them, and owning an assortment of screwdrivers ranged by different length, handle and tip material, amount of interchangeable bits, and brand of steel, and taking those everywhere just in case you might need one of them. In the former case any one screwdriver of the set can't adequately substitute any other—in the latter there will going to be a lot of overlap. Similarly, if there's a high chance you'll need any of these screwdrivers (if using screwdrivers is a part of your daily job, for instance), it makes sense to carry an entire set with minimal overlap. When you carry three lights to a party, there's literally no chance their functions won't overlap completely at least once. People who collect bells or somesuch don't take their collection wherever they go, mind you, which is one good reason it doesn't seem so odd.
Basically, if you're carrying anything that might or might not be useful under some circumstances just to "be prepared", well, it's only fair that people might consider that odd: they interpret it as your fear of the unexpected. You've considered everything that might go wrong even if the chances of it being the case are vanishingly small, and the thought of facing a problem that might arise unprepared makes you uneasy. (Most likely being fearful in this way contributes to embarrassment more than anything else.) People feel that and chuckle at it even if they don't necessarily realize what is it that makes it funny. On the other hand, that is also their way of shrugging off the thought that it's them who aren't fulfilling their basics of preparedness, which for most people, with regard to flashlights, would well be fulfilled by a small AAA keychain light or a decent smartphone with a camera flash LED and a flashlight app—these things put out >10 lm these days, which is plenty enough for most circumstances not requiring a dedicated flashlight use. Some people don't even have that, and that's indeed no less odd and embarrassing than having more than needed—just another embarrassing extreme. In event of a blackout, they'll be helpless while you'll victoriously brandish your three flashlights, of which you only needed at most one for yourself, and get the warm fuzzy feeling of outsmarting everyone and/or being helpful to them. Such help, however, goes seemingly under-appreciated because it's rarely all that important. Lost pacifier is no big deal, and the wife who scolds her husband for that should be ashamed, I'd say. Which brings us to the following point.
A flashlight is, in vast majority of urban cases, not a lifesaver—at least not any more than any other generic tool... yes, like a hammer or a zippo. Thus is also feels odd that a person who wants to be helpful and avert local crises opts to carry the excess of a specific tool rather than, say... medications! Imagine how helpful would be EDCing some 5-7 most important medications that could potentially avert a popular health- or life-threatening scenario; things like: glucose, painkillers, antihistamines, aspirin, antiseptic, antibiotics, bandages, sedatives, absorbites, vasodilators, and something against fainting. All of that combined takes up barely more space than a 1x18650 flashlight, yet how many people other than trained medics carry these medications every day? Something to think about.
