I certainly agree about circle of fifths (or fourths depending on one's perspective). I think it's highly useful to be able to built it inside one's head, though I also carry a printed copy for quick reference. It's a powerful tool.
SBM definitely uses Scaler 2 to help him design/discover progressions.
Scaler 2 has a circle of fifths in its "chord" and "modulation" sections, though I think it doesn't discuss it, just offers a tool one might expect.
Interesting the views about numbers of chords, substitutions and so forth. There is, to me at least, a nice presentation about "The Girl From Ipanema", how tritone substitutions were written into it, how people simplify it.
https://youtu.be/OFWCbGzxofUStatus Quo once did a tour entitled "The Search For The Fourth Chord".
Incidentally, tritone substitutions can make things simpler rather than harder.