[rgoulter]

Sort of.

The downside from the 'state' from Caps Lock is you have to keep track of whether it's active or not.

Whereas with layers, typically a layer will only be active if you're holding down some kind of "activate layer" key.

[drivers99]

Jef Raskin called those "quasimodes" in The Humane Interface (2000) and was in favor of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_(user_interface)#Quasimod...

[rgoulter]

That's an apt term.

Or more to the point: 'mode error' is exactly what the upthread comment is complaining about with the Caps Lock key.