Yes, I want a separate window for the chat/contact list, and I want a tabbed chat window so I could keep the chats I'm actively engaged with at the moment open and easily accessible instead of having to hunt them down in the chat list every time I switch between them. Seemingly every desktop IM app in the 00s did implement some form of this, but then touchscreen phones and tablets happened.

I also want things that don't have to be modals, like profiles, to not be modals. Again, this ain't a phone where you can only have one view controller on the screen at a time. I also want the media viewer to not take over my entire screen but be a regular window that plays nicely with the rest of my desktop.