Apple Watch Ultra 2 too dim in low-light conditions

I am soooo glad I found this forum and a couple of others about this issue.  I am having the same problem with my Ultra 2 Apple Watch and I find it extremely frustrating that this thing will not go any brighter than my Series 5 Apple Watch that it replaced.  This thing is supposed to go up to 2,000 to 3,000 Nits, so why the heck can't I choose how bright I want it to be?  This issue needs to be fixed immediately, as I am ready to return this thing.  I don't need Apple to auto tune my watch for me and determine how bright I want it to be.  This is ridiculous!!  This needs to be fixed with software if possible, or I'm sure a lot of folks will be returning their Ultra 2s.  The flashlight can go plenty bright, but the day to day is dimmer than my Series 5, even at max brightness!  FIX THIS APPLE!!

Crazy to need to use the flashlight from the phone to see the latest greatest watch

Returning my Ultra 2 because of this.

So frustrated. I bought the Ultra 2 to replace my Ultra ONLY for its supposedly brighter screen. Its POTENTIALLY brighter…but WORSE in low light. With poor vision, it is UNUSABLY DIM.

Insult to injury… WatchIS 10 even killed the dim work-around…of opening the phone keypad…then pressing the crown…which locked brightness in.

To me, the entire point of the bigger batter is to give us OPTIONS. iPhone lets us turn auto dimming off…but here, we’re utterly at tge mercy of Apple's battery-life marketing claims…? Heck… Turn it even darker and claim 3 day battery life… Ridiculous. I’m returning the Ultra 2 unless Apple fixes this in tge next 10 dats.

Returning my Ultra 2 because of this.

So frustrated. I bought the Ultra 2 to replace my Ultra ONLY for its supposedly brighter screen. Its POTENTIALLY brighter…but WORSE in low light. With poor vision, it is UNUSABLY DIM.

Insult to injury… WatchIS 10 even killed the dim work-around…of opening the phone keypad…then pressing the crown…which locked brightness in.

To me, the entire point of the bigger batter is to give us OPTIONS. iPhone lets us turn auto dimming off…but here, we’re utterly at tge mercy of Apple's battery-life marketing claims…? Heck… Turn it even darker and claim 3 day battery life… Ridiculous. I’m returning the Ultra 2 unless Apple fixes this in the next 10 days.

For me, it harms battery life because I keep my brightness at max to try and improve the brightness in dark but it’s then set much higher than it needs to be in light environments.

This may cause me to return this US$1K device. I bought this monster thinking between the size and loudly trumpeted 3000 nits I could actually use my watch as intended instead of constantly giving up and pulling out my phone.

Silly me. Even though I have triple the battery over the 6 I was wearing yesterday, we gotta make sure I don't run out of juice by actually using advertised features.

The history there would seem to suggest -- as specifically noted by the OP -- that Apple do not consider this behavior a bug, nor its alteration a desired feature.

So, that sort of answer seeking to quite literally score points for yourself just increases customer resentment and is a disservice.

10.2 update and a little bitter. And please let's focus on how small the word "little" means. Amazing to me that every single apple device allows users to manually adjust brightness, except Apple Watch after these last updates. iMac allows this. MacBook Pro allows this. iPhone allows this. iPad allows this.

Apple Watch does NOT allow this.

The latest update to WatchOS 10.4 adds Settings/Accessibility/Minimum Brightness.

Turn this ON and the watch will no longer dim in dark areas.

Bug reports and change requests can be posted direct to Apple's product developers at Feedback - Watch - Apple