Well I used GUI Emacs for the 99% of the time. Maybe I should give terminal version a try... I had problem that i couldn't stop tweaking Emacs. I would do work, and come to the point of "aha, I need to this, no plugin on melpa, lets try hack it", and then I realize Emacs devoured my productivity! I like Emacs and it's Elisp eco system, but sometimes it goes too far. And I don't like that it has so many things included. I feel constantly like I use 0.1% of it...

But that's a bit unrelated to modal vs non modal edition. That said, I've always wanted a trimmed down emacs; no org; no mail etc ...