Yeah, normally the emacs/vi difference is considered to be "emacs is modeless, vi is modal".

That being said, it is true that basically all software is somewhat modal in limited senses.

• Any software that can throw up an error dialog or similar has the "mode" where the dialog is present, where behavior is different. Emacs effectively does that, can ask to confirm some actions. I assume that that's not what he's talking about.

• Caps Lock is a "mode" for text entry that's normally OS-wide and which I think all text editors I've ever seen subsequent to . I assume that's not what he's falling about.

• Emacs has multi-key commands. Think of hitting C-u. That mode doesn't go away just because you've lifted your hands from the keyboard. Maybe that's what he's thinking of, because most Windows and Mac software doesn't do that. Though on Windows, tapping the Alt key normally is modal OS-wide for menus, unless things have changed.

• Emacs permits changing input method, which is a form of mode. Most software does this at the OS level.

• Emacs has an application-level read-only flag for buffers, which is a form of mode. Most editors don't have that.

• There are Emacs' "modes", but like you, I assume that that's not what he's thinking of, because you don't typically go cycling among them. I mean, if I edit an XML file, I'm in one mode, but other editors that support multiple formats will do something similar, even if they don't call it a mode.

I honestly don't really know what OP is thinking of when he's saying that emacs is occasionally modal and he doesn't want that modality, though. Might be one of the above, might not be.

He says that using the emacs GUI interface is a factor, which confuses me even more, because I can't think of a way in which that is potentially a factor in emacs modal interface at all.