Time to upgrade those stacked modifier to Node base modifier.
Sorry but i think this stack method is obsolete. The modifier should now use Node base system. When having a lot of modifier, for example when doing non -desctructive modeling , it's hard to manage all those modifiers in the stack. The Node base system will offer more rubust method to manage the the order and flow. And it's visually intuitive. I don't see any benefit of keeping this stacked mode.
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This idea is what they call "Everything nodes" in the Blender core development team. They've been mentioning their plan to implement it for more than a year. It's going to come, don't worry.
For me the main benefit of the current workflow is it's simplicity. This is also the case of Blender Internal suits way better for my needs - if you want advanced features, nodes are way to go, but if you just need a shadeless material and some modifiers, then Nodes are nothing but unnecessary complications which also occupies half of your screen. So ideally (for me), it should be implemented as an optional workflow.
* @Jan Kadeřábek * Agree! Both options should be there.
Personally I think the node system in blender needs lots of usability improvements before I'd prefer to switch to it from the modifier stack. With nodes the selecting is weird, it is slower to use, the user interface relies almost completely on keyboard shortcuts instead of content sensitive clicks and menus, the search is really bad and cumbersome for nodes (color, colour, weird names for nodes), there are no zoom features that scale the nodes to keep them readable whem zooming out. Plus with big node setups you still get spaghetti. I hope a lot more work goes into it before it is made the standard. If you have ever used the ue4 node editor you instantly feel the blender nodes is missing a lot of stuff.
* @o7216059 * (my edit doesn't work). Anyways one issue why the modifier stack is limited is because it has to fit in that small area in the ui. In one way it is great because it is always easily available but also never in the way. In other way it is bad because sometimes when you have lots of modifiers you need to scroll and search things manually all the time (because there is no search). But with everything nodes if you make the modifier nodes a new editor window then that potentially takes a ton more space as it needs its own permanent piece of your monitor/blender window which the current modifier stack doesn't need. I'd be careful what you wish for because nodes are neither compact or easily scalable to window size like the modifier stack is.
* @o7216059 * that was a good input
thats planned after 2.8
If the whole of blender becomes like this maybe it be possible to have pure formulated shapes and get compatible with CAD / STEP file formats (engineers be able to work without triangles). On the other side I do like the current compact modifier view as well.
* @peter.boos * use Stepper addon