Lighting – Strengthening LED strip light flex base

It's hard to advise without knowing more about what other lighting will be in those areas and the type of activities you will have going on in the larger room. LED strip lights are great for kitchen task lighting under the cabinets. Personally, I prefer LED over traditional halogen in that situation because they produce less (almost no) heat, more even light distribution, and of course, lower energy usage. Putting them on a dimmer also allows an evening night-light in the kitchen, providing just a very dim glow when you are stumbling to the fridge. Here is a video that shows the differences in the various LED strip lighting. LED Strip differences - Epoxy vs Silicon, 5050 SMD vs 3528 SMD

SMD 3528 is a single chip and SMD 5050 has three chips sometimes known as “Tri-Chip”. SMD 5050 chips are generally three times brighter than SMD 3528 chips. Also, 5050 is widely used when the application for the LED strip requires multi color (RGB). For example, each 3528 emits approximately 7 lumens per chip and 5050 emits 14 lumens per chip.

SMD 3528 LED Flexible Strips

Its dimension is 3.5mm * 2.8mm, power watts is 0.08W per LED chip

These lights are great for single color splashing of walls for both interior and exterior applications, accent lighting for plants, pictures, LED under cabinet lighting, bars and many more. 3528 LEDs can be most cost effective, but will not be as bright. However, SMD 3528 LED Strip lighting will also emit the light more evenly as these LED chips are arranged closer together on the circuit board than SMD 5050 LED chips.

SMD 5050 LED Flexible Strips

Its 5.0mm * 5.0mm, power watts is 0.24w per LED chip

5050 LED chips have 3 LED chips in one housing (Sometimes called tri-chips), and are a lot brighter than 3528 LED chips. They are used when you need high illumination for your project area. Theoretically, SMD 5050 LEDs can offer a light output of approximately 3 times that of the 3528 strips, and therefore 5050 LED chips are perfect for lighting up areas that may be subject to high levels of ambient light

Even though 5050 LED’s produce more heat than 3528, it is still drastically lower than other light sources such as halogen and even fluorescent lamps. 5050 LED’s are different from the 3528 LEDs in that 5050 can combine the three different chips to create millions of color variations which is why they are widely used in RGB LED Strip Lighting. As mentioned previously, 3528 SMD led strips come in single colors only.

Source

Edit to add my personal summary to your comment:

If you want the LED to be a "main" source of light, then you want the 5050. If the light is just as an accent to add some even illumination to an area, then you want the 3528. The 3528 can change colors, but I assume you want white. They are not as bright, but the light is more continuous because the bulbs are closer together. 5050 is much brighter but can be dimmed, so I don't see a reason not to go with 5050 unless you want to change colors.

The more 'electronic' a power supply, the longer it takes to start up. I had this nuisance in my pantry, where I only need light for a few seconds, so I don't want to wait another few seconds every time. I also have a VERY high current demand from a lot of LEDs in total.

I used a sealed lead acid battery on a trickle charger, and a relays. Battery is on common. NO is connected to LEDs. NC to a trickle charger.

Yeah. I'll have to replace the battery when it goes out. Beats waiting for a power supply to ramp up.

Long term, I think I'm going to make a service grade (100-400A) 12/24/48v DC bus for the house, with capacitors for buffering.

You might try a very simple 120vAC to 12vAC transformer (assuming thats your LED's voltage) with a rectifier and capacitor in some enclosure. You're building electrics at that point, so test, and include fuses, etc.