John -

It seems that you have made a mistake in comparing the POVs area light
to your truAreaLight.  To compare the two in your first example, you
should have declared the area light as

light_source {
    <?, ?, ?>
    color ?
    area_light <?, ?, ?>, <?, ?, ?>, 8, 16
}

This should mimic the density of light sources that you're using in your
tru implementation of area lights.

However, it looks like you actually used 

light_source {
    <?, ?, ?>
    color ?
    area_light <?, ?, ?>, <?, ?, ?>, 2, 2
}

which would just put a pointlight at each corner of the rectangle and
give you exactly the results you are showing.

Why don't you re-render the images with the 8, 16 settings and see if
there's a difference??  I'd be interested to see the results.

- Ben

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