Totally - the C ionian D dorian distinctions are often muddled in guitar literature
But doing a parallel comparison is easier to hear: C ionian vs C dorian vs C phyrgian etc
Same with doing melodic minor modes in the parallel fashion
Coming back to the jazz world thing, I mean, I see a Cm7b5 my brain goes to the note set that is locrian nat 2, or Eb melodic minor - it took a while to get that mental transfer to happen, but once itās there, itās just a set of notes, and then if I know my keys really well, I see that note set superimposed into the basic key too.
Obviously all this stuff takes a while, at least it took me quite a whileā¦