Exactly my point re seeing how someone who uses planes as a 'first' choice would find it a better option re splitting the elevator and aileron controls with mode 1. I personally found it really hard to begin with when I first flew my plane.
I guess it's about getting something that is best for purpose and YOU specifically, as I feel that IF your going to be mainly into heli's like myself, mode 2 is a better option re the way a heli flies (thus why I use it), if your going with planes as your main 'fix', mode 1 would make better sense to me (personally). I just say with using only one mode (2) for safety reasons around thumb training for when things might go wrong mid flight (I don't want a situation where I try to kill the throttle when I'm trying to pull up in a hurry or something)

Wazzbat, while I'm sure someone will (hopefully) correct me if I'm wrong, if your buddy boxing with someone and your on the slave box, I'm sure that most radios don't care what mode your on - as as far as I understand it, if yours is mode 1, and the instructor with the master box is mode 2, they will both stay in their specific modes as the buddy cable transmits elevator, throttle, rudder commands etc, not the actual stick movements (as in the same way a receiver will work with any mode, it just receives throttle (etc) signals, not left stick said to do this).