Have I been playing wrong all this time?

Up to now, when I wanted to play Domination in Deity, I went Scientific Theory into Dynamite (for Art/Cav push), thinking that otherwise I would fall behind too much in tech. However, last night I tried to give it (i.e Education->Dynamite) a go with Korea and Germany.

I was only 5% behind in Demographics when I hit Dynamite with Germany, and I was more or less the tech leader with Korea. Have I been playing wrong all this time? Because this clearly seems to be the much better option to me. After Dynamite I go Scientific Theory and into Flight, should I skip Scientific Theory for a faster flight as well?

Have you read Pedrroelm's thread about Honor/Autocracy?

I became interested in it when it said I could skip the modern era

I don't see why not. Great War Bombers do tremendous amounts of "research".