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A man asked a question to his friend, “Why was it the best time for Bilal to be in his home?”
His friend replied, “It would be the best time for Bilal to be in his home because his uncle visited him at that time.”
In what sense is the modal verb would being used above?
Can we replace the would used there with this instead:
It might have been the best time. . . ..
What job does would do in the quoted dialogue above?
The phrase in his home is not the usual idiom: we normally say at home. This doesn't necessarily mean that the phrase is wrong or unidiomatic; it’s possible to imagine circumstances in which in his home would be exactly the right way to put it; but it raises the suspicion that the speakers were not native speakers.
The answer is not unambiguously responsive to the question: ordinarily an answer is expressed with the same tense and mood as the question. Here, however, the question is expressed using the simple past, but the answer uses a construction with would; and although would is indeed the simple past form of will, its use implies one of these meanings:
So there are two possible misuses, and one possible correct use. You may be charitable and assume that the speaker was using would correctly. Me, given point 1, I doubt it: I just don't think a native speaker would construct so formal a sentence as that with would in that sense.
I think you are probably right in your guess that what the speaker meant was might have been; but that's not something which the construction with would expresses.
