Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-32617252-20171028231750/@comment-734582-20171103085346

Namikazenaruto9 wrote: They are definitely not the same things. Hashirama is using the ability of his strong body just like madara uses his dojutsu. Kurama or any other summon would technically would be addition of foes especially when hashirama didn't use summon to fight back. Nature energy doesn't exist for shits n giggles. It's real energy that exists in the world, and serves a real function. Ranging from the heat and work stored in air, heat stored in the earth, work stored in the flow of water, energy embedded in light. Without that energy, the world would be a cold dead rock. Emphasis on cold.

Sage Mode steals that energy to use it for your own gain, just as Sharingan can steal another's power, either figuratively via Jutsu or literally via Genjutsu. We can go 20 rounds about what is morally worse or whatever, but Sage Mode is by it's very definition not one's own power, it's literally, completely and without ambiguity external power.