The more I play with flanger the more I like it. On clean guitar with low settings it's a nicer chorus than chorus.
I fell for the prejudice that flanger is just jet swish simulator a la Van-Halen/Barracuda, that's actually the least useful sound in a flanger.
I had a similar flanger revelation a few months ago.
I never really did much modulation outside of modulated reverbs and delays and tremolo. Made a decision to force myself to use them more the last year just to explore them and see what I learned in the process.
Chorus and rotary have been standouts for me. Ive overplayed the rotary sounds so im cutting back on that for the minute. The chorus sounds have been super fun, especially relatively fast and deep ones as a special effect on simple single note lines. Subtle flanging has got a lot of use too. Phase comes and goes it’s just not really my thing. Vibrato is great.
If I had to pick the one big winner it’s probably chorus just for its versatility, or a flanger that can get chorusy.
D