I think you will find that pulling the lighting stalk towerd the steering wheel is for "flashing" the lights (bright ones at that) and is spring loaded. and pressing the stalk away from the steering wheel switches the lights to the high beams and is not spring loaded.
Or am I being too simple concerning a complicated problem?
No, I think that is a valid point. The American manufacturers have us trained to pull the stalk to turn on the highs, then pull it again to go back to low.
The Europeans do it differently, pull for flash highs, push for highs on.