This sentence appears in Der Anschlag, by S. King, translated by Wolf Bergner,
Ich schätze, letztlich wollte ich wohl etwas, was sich schlecht anfühlte, so notwendig es auch gewesen sein mochte, durch etwas ausgleichen, was sich gut anfühlte.
My question is about this phrase:
so notwendig es auch gewesen sein mochte
Why is this "mochte" and not "mag" or better "möchte"?
It's mochte because it's storytelling (inside the outer story that is told in Präsens). Präteritum is the main tense for that. Wollte and anfühlte are in Präteritum as well.
You could use mag at that place as well as the beginning is in Präsens tense but that marks that part of the sentence as a fact outside of the inner story which twists the meaning. With mag instead of mochte, the insight of the storyteller wasn't back then but is now.
You cannot use möchte at that place because that would mark it as a non-fact which does not fit the context.
