Usually VNAV armed at the gate and kept in until approaching the last 1000ft before level off, then VS. Of course, only if flying on automatics that is.

In the Cirrus I use IAS mode in the climb once I have the pitch attitude and desired speed set. On the way down, VS mode.

FLCH or VNAV at 250 till 10,000 and let it accelerate there, then disengage autothrottle and flick the VS wheel once when the plane starts to pitch back up at speed capture; set VS +2000 or so with A/T OFF, manually adjusting power and gradually adjusting vertical rate to roughly maintain climb speed until FL280 or so (crossover altitude); then reengage autothrottle and Mach hold / FLCH to cruise. If rate of climb approaching cruise altitude or intermediate leveloff is too great, will use VS or FPA to ease it over. Sometimes use FPA to actually pitch the nose towards level (rolls over in FPA smoother than VS) then reengage it in VS once it has stabilized (leave it in FPA just long enough to get the other guy to go "what the h...." then switch it back before he figures it out

VS keeps a more even deck angle climbing through changing winds, and the A/T off keeps it from chasing small speed variations. Not too much "micromanaging" of rates, etc just a general connection with what the airplane is doing. Speed protection, etc is provided by simply paying attention. If it's high workload, distracted, etc, I'll just reengage everything and throw it back in VNAV.

VS - offers no protection from a stall or overspeed. FLCH is good - VNAV is also good. The name of the game is to use all the protection available which serves to lessen the workload and make for a safer more comfortable flight for the paying passengers.

In the MD11, I normally climb "speed on pitch" until 10,000 feet, then "speed on thrust" until climb speed is reached, then back to speed on pitch until a 1,000 feet before level off, (if in RVSM airspace),.
fbh

VS to 10K, then pitch at 4 deg above the horizon to cruise. Gets me very close to the company climb profile, even through the Mach transition. Don't always do it for various reasons though... really whatever works best for the situation.

Speed mode works pretty well for me, unless its really turbulent. When the AP starts to hunt for the speed I'll switch to the pitch mode for a better ride.

VNAV with constraints otherwise FLCH. Been burned by VS in the past whilst distracted.

VNAV unless that doesn't work out well. V/S when approaching a level off.

I find it interesting that anyone would use rate of climb for the (majority) of a climb. Yes, for a short step climb, down low and or when light, but otherwise, why would you want to throttle back your climb? Regarding using v/s near top of climb, clearly there is a need to "throttle back"; RVSM, potential TCAS issues, to name a few, but there are issues also with some aircraft using v/s. My company, on my jet, specifically warns against use of v/s when approaching a selected altitude. The altitude capture mode is "Foxtrot Uniformed" by use of v/s near the capture mode creating the the possibility of an overshoot of the selected altitude. Not good, especially if one was distracted right at the time the airplane was "expected" to level off.
Maybe this is just a function of an auto flight system that is/was over designed, or under engineered.