Why won't my Nanoleaf panels dim down low enough at night?

That low-end floor is mostly just how those panels are. They're driven differently from a regular bulb, so the minimum brightness is a lot higher than what a dimmable lamp can hit. Even the best of them bottom out around a soft nightlight level, not a candle flicker.

But there's a second thing working against you, and that's the Hue route. When the panels run through the bridge, Hue is translating its own brightness scale into whatever the panels accept, and the low end tends to get compressed. Mine felt noticeably dimmer in the panels' own app than they ever did through Hue. So try this: control them straight from the maker's app for a night and compare the lowest setting. If they go dimmer there, the integration is eating your low end. If they bottom out in both places, it's the hardware and no setting will fix it.

One workaround that helped me was color choice rather than brightness. A deep warm amber at the same brightness reads way softer to your eye than white or a cool tone. I made a scene with a dark orange-ish tone for evenings and it fooled me into thinking the panels were dimmer than they technically were. Not a true candlelight mode, but closer.

And on the module question, the earlier reply about keeping both controllers going is worth considering. If you keep the original controller connected too, you can use the native app for scenes and dimming and let Hue handle the rest of the house. Bit of a juggling act, but it gets you back the touch controls and the lower dimming floor. As for other brands, most hex panels I've seen or tried have the same complaint in their reviews, so I wouldn't rip everything out expecting a big difference. A cheap warm lamp on a smart plug next to the desk ended up being my actual wind-down solution, with the panels saved for when I want the room to look cool.

Reminds me of the old days when we'd fix a bulb that wouldn't dim low enough with a simple rheostat inline. Can't do that with these panels, but I did somethig similar in spirit years ago on a set I ran: stuck a strip of that frosted window film over the face of a couple panels. Knocked the glare way down and the low setting finally felt usable. Cheap, reversible, and you can pull it off if you hate it. Worth a try before you write the whole setup off.

Seconding the frosted film idea, that trick works better than it has any right to. I did the same thing on mine last winter and the difference at low brightness was bigger than anything I got from fiddling with settings. Only extra thing I'd add is you don't have to cover every panel the same. I doubled it up on the two panels right in my eyeline and left a single layer on the rest, so the glow stays even but the glare spots calm down. Peels off clean too if you ever sell the place.

One thing I'd add is room context. Mine looked way dimmer when I tested them with the ceiling light on than in a fully dark room at night, once your eyes adapt in the dark every little glow gets cranked up. So visibility isn't purely about what the panels can do. Also if yours sit near a monitor like mine do, the screen light at night makes the contrast worse. Try them in a dimly lit room before writing off the app settings, made a difference for me anyway.