I do my vegging under a 1kw MH in an air cooled hood. The internode spacing as absolutely awesome, especially compared with flouro's. I have a friend that uses CFL's, and there's really no comparison. You can even root clones under it, if you put a couple layers of cheesecloth over the dome.
Imo, part of the reason you don't need as much light to veg with is because during veg, the plants are still nice and small, and can be grouped rather close together. During flowering, your plants will double or even triple in size, requiring the plants to be spaced further apart, and needing more light to penetrate the thick canopy.