The light spell provides a 20-foot radius of bright light and 20 additional feet of dim light.
But a hooded lantern provides 30 feet of bright and 30 more feet of dim light (and a Bullseye Lantern provides a 60-foot cone of bright light and dim light for an additional 60 feet).
Any reason you couldn't cast light on a small object and pop it into one of these items to get the same performance?
I tend to think "yes" because this is as simple as the difference between a naked bulb, and a bulb with a specific arrangement of reflectors around it.
Plus the light spell casts light in all directions, the hooded lantern reflects light in a plane and the bullseye lantern in a narrow cone. It's not like this isn't basically covered by the laws of physics.
I can even imagine specially built lanterns with an arrangement to make it easier to cast light on a copper piece and then drop the copper into a specially built slot.
But I'm fine with the light spell being cast on "the lantern's wick" - And even if you think light lights up the whole object (see similar questions) there's no reason the copper piece trick wouldn't work (or pulling the wick, casting light on that, etc.)
Am I missing something? Or does this open up the D&D world for a special type of lantern designed for the light spell?
I think this question boils down to - Can one use existing D&D world 'technology' in combination with magic?
The existing technology is "Reflectors work well to channel light sources" - So what's wrong with combining common knowledge with a magical light source?
On the other end of the spectrum, if the question was "Can I build an electromagnet and power it with a lightning bolt?" the answer would be "Hells no! Nobody in the D&D world knows what an electromagnet is!"