In a way, LRV's aren't much...if any...REAL help in decorating.

If color "X" is too dark for a space, it's too dark!
Doesn't really matter what the color is then...
Every room in a home has such different decor, uses & lighting sources/angles, that LRV becomes fairly meaningless.

Faron

I have found them helpful.

I would like to know the LRV of RH Cappuccino. I have found that my Living Room looks best with a shade in the 34-38 range.

Color Muse Colorimeter ( Illuminant D65, 2° observer)

Restoration Hardware Cappuccino - LRV 39

Restoration Hardware Bay Laurel - LRV 40

I agree the only thing LRV tells you is how much light a color will reflect. (conversely how much it absorbs is implied.)

Cappuccino, for example, its LRV is 39. Whatever the inherent light source, Cappuccino will reflect 36% (ish) of it back and *keep* the other 64% (ish).

Doesn't matter how little or how much light, dim or bright, the LRV is the LRV.

I have seen some bloggers say LRV speaks to a color's depth or richness.

That's not correct.

LRV is luminance. Nothing more, nothing less.

Depth and richness correlates with Chroma, how gray or colorful a color is.

Color measurements and appearance models are amazing because they organize how we see color in real life into separate categories. Those 3 categories are hue, value, chroma. LRV is a bonus attribute.

Breaking color out into separate, measurable categories makes it possible to describe, define, order, and manage color.

Like donnatreu's example, If you've figured out you prefer colors within a LRV range of 24 to 38, that's an extremely helpful guideline to use when searching for paint colors.