Yeah, I hear you. You can definitely get in a world of hurt at night. If you do, the biggest problem is that no one is usually around and if they are, they can't see you. I wouldn't recommend it to most people.
I have a ton of "night vision" experience from fishing several nights a week at night (and piloting the boat) as well as working on the water at night (piloting a boat) so it's no big deal to me to be on water at night. Things like storms worry me more.

The more I think about it, riding at night is probably a bad idea for people with little time on the water in the dark. My point was other things that you CAN see, like storms are worse and too often ignored. Same point as you.