Be careful suggesting we don't need GC. We do for perfect realism.

I tell people that they can get away with HSV ETM, as being better than nothing, but I'm fairly convinced that for physical realism, it is not acceptable. For art, it is, if you're an artist who does not insist on physical reality.

Frosting the bulb is pretty easy - just apply the tiniest bit of opacity (i.e. don't make it perfectly transparent). With the inverse-square light being so close it will get incredibly bright.

The harsh shadow can be softened. You have to use blur on the light's shadow. At the particular angles here, you may have to use much higher shadow samples when you blur it.

The effect of flourescent lights is they are larger (not points) and they are a bit more green. We don't have area lights, so you can use point lights with a lot of blur. If you're really into maximum realism, you'd simulate an area light with an array of many point lights - something like 16 to 24 lights, per fixture. That's if you're crazy, of course.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)