If it's just a bare LED on a board (ie: not in a case going through a light pipe or diffuser), 1 mA is actually pretty bright with modern LEDs. They're a lot more efficient than they used to be.
For use as indicators for firmware debugging under typical office lighting, I find 1 mA to be the "sweet spot" - bright enough that I can tell it's lit with a quick glance, but not so bright that if I'm staring at the board it becomes uncomfortable to look at, or distracting out of the corner of my vision.
However, if it's for indication for an operator of a device, and it's inside a case going through some lossy elements (eg: aforementioned light pipe or diffuser), I'll definitely use more current to make it a bit brighter.
I can't be sure it's "on" unless it leaves little 0603-sized purple spots in my vision. ;)
(Maybe I'm biased because I often have my office window open and it's bright... and having couple orders of magnitude of current above what a microcontroller pullup/pulldown will source/sink has been nice sometimes-- that or I'm just stubbornly trying to justify following the very-old 4mA rule of thumb).
For use as indicators for firmware debugging under typical office lighting, I find 1 mA to be the "sweet spot" - bright enough that I can tell it's lit with a quick glance, but not so bright that if I'm staring at the board it becomes uncomfortable to look at, or distracting out of the corner of my vision.
However, if it's for indication for an operator of a device, and it's inside a case going through some lossy elements (eg: aforementioned light pipe or diffuser), I'll definitely use more current to make it a bit brighter.