I have a shallow end light too and the plaster doesn't look great with the lights on. I don't think it will brush out. Not sure if it is typical or not but the shadows from the light enhance all of the imperfections. I can understand why people chose not to put a light in the shallow end.

This will not brush out - what you are looking at is the quality of the cement masons that did your pool finish. To be fair, at night with the lights on you will see every last miniscule imperfection as though it were under a microscope - so have a grain of salt with how this looks. That being said, the pool floor should be smooth and without trowel lines...perhaps you could try to post a picture to provide us with a frame of reference.