Is there any way to set, or at least fake, Excel, or windows in general, to
mimic the Motif-like 'focus follows mouse' focus policy?

Assume a sheet and a modeless form displayed. When the mouse cursor moves
onto the form, the form gets the focus, and vice versa, when the mouse
cursor moves from the form onto the sheet, the sheet gets the focus. No
clicking, just moving.

Something on the effective order of:

Sub UserForm_Enter()
Me.someControl.SetFocus or whatever
End Sub
.. . .

Sub Worksheet_Enter()
SetFocus or Activate or whatever
End Sub

While modeless forms are certainly a boon, without being able to do this
they can tend to cause more confusion than they're worth. One never knows
just where one is typing without making sure that the place you assume you
are is in fact the place with the focus.

--
Terry

"I said I never had much use for one,
I never said I didn't know how to use one."
M. Quigley