Quoted from merccat:To me a “mode” is any special scoring scheme started by the player through the achievement of a specific shot or series of shots (may also be randomly awarded) in which certain targets in the game become active and/or are worth additional points. A mode may end by timer, the completion of mode active targets and/or shots, or the loss of a ball.
In that regard I wouldn’t consider completing a-b-c-d a mode in itself as while it may do something like advance bonus or award points it’s not making active additional scoring options that are not already there. It could however be a trigger to start a mode.
So would that make Blackout in the game of the same name a mode? How about starting multiball in Pinbot?