doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
I thobk what seems to hapoen a lot is a lot of handwaving.
The math on torches (and,oil lamps) etc goes nuclear when,you start looking at wanting a lighted camp that is not a sitting duck.
For that you need a dsrk center ringed by external lights that reveals the enemy on approach while leaving you in an interior unlit zone.. I did the math for that, oils per lamp/lantern per night per week (torches worse) and barring getting handed the right items as magic items it gets prohibitive to spend a couple weeks in the field without bags of holding.
The problem with light cantrip is only one per caster. So no way to have that many surrounding your camp.
Sure, with ready supply of gems you can get CF until somebody's 2nd level darkness spell snuffs them all out and you gotta go get the gems and do it all over.
Torches on tripods with reflective backing to shine the light directionally. DnD ignores the smokeyness of torches, so no worries about the surface getting sooty.