Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
I wrote an Article there on lighting that will answer many of your questions, including color quality. In choosing lights you should consider amount of light(lumens), color of the light(color temperature), and quality of the color(CRI). All this information is on the lamp box. My brother-in-law is a GE lighting engineer. He helped me with my shop lighting and writing this Article.

If your fluorescents flicker you are using lighting technology equivalent to carbon steel lathe tools and step pulleys. The cause is magnetic ballasts that have not been made in decades. Current fluorescents do not flicker or hum.

T5's come in two varieties, T5 and T5HO (high output). T5HO fixtures are available at Home Depot but not at Lowes. You can deliver 20,000 lumens from one 4-lamp fixture. I used them in critical shop areas like over a vice where I dovetail and over the table saw.