@Atheran welcome back, and you sure sound a lot more knowledgeable than me about modelling now. For me modelling is just part of my toolset as an FM author for getting things done, alongside sound/image editing and scripting, so I'm glad to see a (newly baked) specialist in this field returning to the forums.
Regarding the tools, Lightwave isn't obligatory. Arcturus and I use Blender, while I know others use/used 3dsmax, softimage and wings3d. As long as it produces .lwo or .ase models it's all good.