Which is more important... the TOON or the MODS?

arguments can be made for both, but in the end it's the toons that determine the meta and not the mods.
A meta team like drevan/malak with mediocre mods will still outperform pretty much every other team with good mods.
It's also easier to overcome a mod difference by using a counter/better team than it is to overcome a counter/better team with superior modding.