Let me address this by saying that first, the scope of each of the first two volumes in the series is intentionally narrow, and done this way for more than one reason, but mostly to facilitate learning and retention. (Also to be original, but mostly for the purpose of doing easier things before harder ones, like pentatonics before diatonics.) You seem to be familiar with the sound of Diatonics (7-tone scales), but not Pentatonics (5-tone scales). More to the point, in Volume I, the focus is on patterns, not scales. So, first off, Volume I focuses on the pattern organization of the fretboard pretty much to the exclusion of everything else, although targeting is introduced in later editions (for exactly this reason). Second, you've either seen or soon will see, that there are 3 distinct pattern types which emerge from the standard tuning arrangement of 6 strings tuned 4th 4th 4th 3rd 4th:
1. Chord Forms, 2. Scale Forms and 3. Lead Patterns They are each presented the same four ways and in the same order. This produces two ways to name chords and scales: 1. Counting the same form fret-by-fret from the open position, and 2. Counting form-by-form using the CAGED Sequence. Musically, only chords and scales are discussed in Volume I, and each is the smallest and simplest of its kind: Major triads and Pentatonic Scales with a Major tonal orientation. Much other information has been deferred in order to get through this aspect of the system as quickly and painlessly as possible. At this point, the chords will all sound fine and make sense aurally and visually in every position, but the scales are not so simple. They contain more notes, which are played in succession and it is necessary to express them with more specificity than with the chords. Until recently, this was deferred until Volume II, where the concept of "targeting" certain notes is introduced to produce both a "key" and a "mode" (or tonal orientation) from a given form and position. In Volume I, we assume Major to be the "reference mode" and as with the chords, all the scale forms are named relative to Major. They won't actually sound correct until we agree on exactly which degree will be our starting and stopping place, and that differs with each form. It is not sufficient to simply start and stop on the first and last note in the pattern, as many beginners tend to assume. Since they are not even the same note in the basic scale forms, it cannot produce a definitive key or mode. In other words, it's just a pattern, not a scale. Targeting, or starting and stopping on a specified degree within the form, is the means by which we get a scale from our fretboard pattern. There are strengths and weaknesses in this approach, but at least it eliminates the typical problems associated with key-mode-form confusion. Plus, it balances out the mental and physical work load. Consider that while the barred chord forms are easy to recognize and sound right tonally, they are physically more difficult for your fretting hand to produce satisfactorily (especially the G and D Forms) for most players, including beginners. While the basic Scale Forms are relatively easy to negotiate for our fretting fingers, they are more mentally difficult to recognize until we get specific with our note choices, particularly, what notes we start and stop on. This complicates things (perhaps based on our expectations from the earlier, simpler chord forms.) Later, we will take this same approach a step further and look at targeting as more than merely starting and stopping on a given degree within a form, and we'll discuss "phrasing" our scalar tone groups in such a way as to target appropriately, without being boring or predictable. When the time comes (Applications>Lead Playing>Improvisation), we will introduce the layers needed to convert mere tone groups (like scales, intervals and arpeggios,) into more sophisticated musical statements (like riffs, melodies and leads.) For this stage, I'm pretty happy if you just recognize that playing scales, per se, is not playing lead, and in addition to using the right notes among those available, we must add another element (namely, targeting tone centers) to these basic materials to produce the desired result: deriving a scale - from a scale form. In this instance, by starting with the simpler pentatonic scale, we have necessarily disoriented a small segment of the guitar-playing population, of which you are a member, which is only familiar with "diatonic" or seven-toned scales (aka do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do) which in FL, are deferred until Volume II, when we begin to assume that people are sufficiently familiar with the forms and positions, and can assimilate more music-related information without having to go back to "put this finger here, put that finger there" types of thinking. For now it is enough to just be able to name the scale by form and position. You can also skip ahead and find the tonics for each form (in Volume II) and play to and from that note in each form. You will soon recognize these as diatonics minus the 4th and 7th degrees. Again, recent editions of FL I and FLSE introduce the tonics (as targets) to the basic scale forms so players like yourself can hear the scales sooner.