Q: I guess thinking in terms of modes is mostly useful when you're really going for that specific quality/sound the modes have?
A: i think the point of modes is so we have an easy name for that time when you want a minor scale but u want to keep the natural 6. (dorian). or that time when u want a major scale but you want the flat 7 (mixo). that's the main way modes are used, in the business. and no one ever says 'modes' really, you would just say "major", "minor", "dorian", or "mixo." as far as the sequence of 7 'modes', that's just a red herring, to throw young music students off the trail and confuse them and get them to think they don't understand music when in reality music is as easy to understand as tender lovemaking