Networking - VLANs & Trunks

I've renamed your question, so more experts may take part. No need to tag it VMware, if you post it in the VMware topic.

The same benefits of using VLANs apply to physical as well as virtual, reduced physical network interface ports, easier management of traffic.

There is no need to use VLANS if you do not want to.

Here is a VMware related link

https://nsxinsight.wordpress.com/2015/02/06/vlan-101-what-are-the-benefits-of-using-vlans/

It discussed NSX, but the same is true for any ESXi server and VLANs.

VLANs are just that. A virtualized, logical method of separating Layer 2 broadcast domains on the network. Trunking vlans to VMWare hosts extends those virtualized domains to your VM's, allowing them to participate in whichever vlans you configure them to be apart.

Virtualization lets you create separate networks on the same hardware, and also makes fault tolerance a breeze

There really is no "advantage" to the trunk mode you are using going to VM aside from the fact that you have to set it to mode active, otherwise the link either won't establish or if by some miracle you get it rolling, it will be problematic.  The mode of a port-channel/trunk is just the methodology used by the host/switch to determine how to manage/negotiate the trunk.

On - port will always come up as port-channel regardless of negotiation state of end host
Active - port actively sends requests and attempts to negotiate
Passive - port listens for lacp negotiation but does not send requests
Desirable - port will use DTP to attempt to build a trunk/port-channel with end host