It's still linear as you cannot access let's say I, J or H before having played the prerequisites cities A, B, C, D, E for this cities (at best). It makes sense in a way as the goal is to travel in the US from east to west, but compared to a game like TAF, it's still pretty linear (and I like Roadshow).

On TAF you can start by any mode (yes it's pseudo-random as the lit mode change with pops), but you can still begin by THING multiball or whatever. Could you start different modes at the same time (stacking) in RS too ? I'm not sure, but it's possible on a lot of games and add to the "non-linearity" factor I guess.

It's OK to have modes that are a reward for having completed some earlier modes (think TABA in LOTR), but having all the modes in a more or less fixed order can be annoying.

if TAF has "only 7 modes as the 3/6/9 millions and EB aren't really modes", what can be say about RS? there are at least three "modes" where you have to bash the bulldozer...