Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-32617252-20170726232219/@comment-25632268-20170810215851

Sage Mode felt like temporally solution. Naruto got it as a mean to take down Pain because Kishimoto was saving Kurama's chakra for later. It wasn't bad itself, bijuus chakra mode/transformation was suppose to be the ultimate weapon, problem is manga made a great deal out of Sage Mode only to abandon it soon after. There should have been one more arc before war, where Naruto could utilize SM better. Even its sensing capabilities got overshadowed later, when Naruto obtained control over Kurama's chakra.