That's kind of what I thought too. Our app is very Modal heavy (including modal inception), but I can't think of any case where the suggested alternatives would actually be better. And that's backed up by the fact that our users regularly tell us how easy and awesome it is to navigate through it.

It's one of those things that when you prototype a design without them you really feel the difference.

“Worked” isn’t exactly right. “Was popular” is better imo.