Tinctures were used to make per bottle variants. Bottles marked with the type of tincture and the amount of drops. I wasn't too scientific about it, just made variants randomly on about half the batch. Personally I liked the mangoe tincture and the bottles spiked with mezcal.
I also tried a cherry tincture which was interesting but not dosed right. The biggest problem with vodka tinctures overall is that you get the alcohol taste from the vodka come through as well, so at higher amounts they taste boozey by association, not a good balance to the flavour. In future I plan to try purpose made flavourings for food industry.
I'm on the lookout for other ways to add variation to a small batch of beer.
Recipe: "XPA - The Usual Hop-Specs - BZ35L" on brewfather (I used all galaxy, no sabro)
I wouldn't say it's essential to homebrew to get beer that is hoppy (aroma) but less bitter, so definitely a chance you can find something that works for you being produced today from a brewery. There's so much variety at the moment and plenty of styles to dive into. Since you mentioned bitterness, see if you can find things by their IBU (bitterness score) and work from that?
From http://beernexus.com/ibustory.html