As far as directional lighting patterns go, that's a matter of the lamp design. Sodium vapor could be housed in a reflector that directs nearly all of it's light downwards.
I'm not against LED technology being used though, just the rampant failing LEDs and the obnoxious brightness & color they produce. Also not fond of the futuristic looking light pole design they seem to always use.
For astrophotography, sodium vapor's color cast is very easy to filter out, whereas the broad spectrum LEDs are not, especially when they don't all emit the same frequencies.
Also they are better suited to their job so need less light.
Sodium lights are nowhere near as flexible so are worse, mostly, on both counts