Cool thing about the Cygolite Hotshots is that it's painfully bright only when viewed from directly behind. It has a narrow aperture of maximum brightness, due to the reflector design.
Which in theory should nudge cars off your butt.
Sure works for me when I'm in a group ride and someone ahead has their Hotshot on maximum strobe. It's hard to follow directly behind anyone using those modes on a Hotshot. In group rides I always set mine to steady dim, and use a less potent blinky as a supplemental light.
I think the triple flash mode has much lower peak intensity, which is why it lasts the longest per charge. That's what I normally use.