I don't use the whole tone scale much, just because I rarely use augmented chords or dominant chords where the fifth is altered. A good fill scale though. But if I have a dominant chord with a flattened or raised fifth, I will use this scale. I generally find it by thinking of it as the lydian dominant but the 5th is raised (or enharmonic #4 in place of a b5). Over a augmented chord, I think of a lydian scale with the 5th raised. Also, called the lydian augmented scale (3rd mode of the melodic minor). Often, when I use an augmented chord such as Cmaj7(#5). I generally disguise it as E/C or use it as a passing chord.

About the minor being sad or not, yeah I guess it depends on how you play it. You can make the minor scale sound happy, just like you can make the major scale sound sad. All depends on how the melody or C.P, goes. Generally the minor scales make me think of the downer side of the spectrum, but as always there are exceptions.

Even using the dorian scale as a format to structure a chord progression can produce a good bluesy rock song. My favorite and the walking cliches for blues, the progression Imin - IImin - bIII - IImin. What can I say it’s just fun to lay down that progression and put a blues lick over it. :D I usually just add the b5 instead of altering it, so the formula still has a natural 5th and a flat 5th. Just to make this progression possible and compatible. Imin - IImin - bIIImin - IImin. Hella bluesy.