I am using the command ...
webpack -w --mode development
but can not tell what benefits this adds. I'm assuming it adds debugging benefits over production mode but I can not tell that it is doing anything.
It sets the process.env.NODE_ENV to the value that you can use afterwards in your code accordingly afterwards
More information available here: https://webpack.js.org/configuration/mode/
You have access to sourcemaps (helps in debugging error), development server can be launched up which will restart everytime a file changes, no optimizations are done in development. moreover it's how we configure things for both modes