[lioeters]

In my experience, it's the opposite. Immediate mode GUI, or at least a functional and declarative approach, is the only way I've seen it scale well. It's more modular and scale-independent. On the other hand, retained mode, or imperative/OOP approach to state management, becomes complicated and monstrous quickly; it's the dominant style and can be made to work OK, but typically hellish to maintain or develop beyond a certain scale.

Admittedly I'm simplifying too much and conflating paradigms. My preference is something like "functional core, imperative shell" or maybe "immediate-mode core, retained-mode shell" if that makes sense.