On large applications, this can be become a nightmare to maintain.
Modals were the spot where I threw in the towel on perfect progressive enhancement. Like yes, I could make this work without JavaScript. But I'm not willing to take the likely weeks designing and building a robust solution for it which would definitely have to involve routing.
I like OP's post, because this is a decision I am wrestling with. Right now I only use modals for things like confirmation windows or showing a larger version of a photo when you click a thumbnail. Kind of like the use cases they outline. Ephemeral. But I am about to start implementing a payment flow that is more complex than just "enter your card number and hit enter", and as nice as I think it would be to have it in a modal, but having it as its own page/flow is so much easier in so many different ways, I think this tipped me over the edge.
It's absolutely possible to build maintainable, accessible, linkable, fast modals.
I have no clue why someone would say those things are impossible or impossibly difficult to achieve.
Article mentions some.
And please notice that we are not advocating for the complete elimination of modals; rather, to avoid their use in specific situations.
