I tend to agree on that. I never distinguish between "modes" and "scales" - scales are modes and modes are scales. It's all just scales to me.
Calling one a mode and one a scale is arbitrary - 500 years ago (?) they were very big Ionian fans so they called that the major scale (even though it's not the most "major" - Lydian is) and everything else is "a mode of the major scale".
In the diatonic system you've got a collection of 7 notes in a particular order with fixed distances separating them. Start at any point and you can spell a scale that is harmonized in a different way - that's it.
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Since we agree on the chromatic distances between the notes A,B,C,D,E,F and G, we could just say "The scale starting with A is scale #1" - "The scale starting with F is scale #4" . Nothing to get scared or confused about. (We could also make things easier by using numbers instead of letters to name the notes - but that's a different discussion.)
...Musicians wouldn't always be worried about "is this major or is this minor - is this allowed - is this bad?" and they wouldn't be scared to death to mess with mystical "incantations" like "Locrian" or "Lydian".
Problem is that after so many hundreds of years of thinking and writing and notating and designating using the tradition terminology, making a change like that would be impossible. We'd have to rip up everything and start all over. ....
After the French Revolution, they tried to start using a new calendar, based on the decimal system - ten days to a week etc etc. The new government made that the official calendar - it made much more sense - a lot more symmetrical and logical than the traditional calender that we use. Most people in their private lives ignored it completely. For a couple of years the revolutionary zealots stuck with it. But in few years the whole idea disappeared - it was impossible to change the system that was in place, even though the new one made more sense. It's the same reason they never adopted the metric system for most things in the USA and Great Britain even though it's much easier to work with.
modes/scales: I don't have enough training to incorporate the extra modes beyound Ionian, and Aeolian. I'll stick to the more conventional major/minor labels.
500 years ago: I thought only the notes found on the white keys of the piano, were the only acceptable notes. And I believe the tuning was different. I know who to blame, but its against the rules and the ten commandments, to say who I think is, with out further study.
Scales starting with A is (as) scale #1. I would like to start with C after all it is middle ground on a piano. Besides that, I started a thread on TalkBass to discuss whether the Do Re Mi scale should be fixed, or be movable. There's also an option to discuss whether sharps and flats should be included or alternate spelling be used for the half-steps. I declare myself bias on this point.
Incantations: I think maybe this thread is beginning to leak secret sauce, the one that has carrots as an ingredient.
Start all over: As Marx and Lenin, (Not Lennon), (Thats Harpo, and the cloth made from flax), once said, what's the sense of living unless you have a few revolutions every few years. We could clean house, and make bass playing an acceptable musical occupation.
The French, and the metric system: Okay, the French are like the drummers of the world (nuff said). Metrics, the bolts and nuts in the metric system are not as strong as the bolts in the SAE system. When you buy a 100 ft measuring tape, make sure it isn't a civil engineer's tape. Watch out for the engineers scale in drafting, And some of the metric equivalents are just funky to work with.
Please don't take me too seriously, as I stated, I have my imaginary bridge that I live under, along with other T-beings.
I just was curious about those holes - maybe I need new glasses because I don't see them.