As mentioned in here mods are not the 'base' game. mods are player tweaks mostly. I am not sure how you figure it's a crutch at all. Larian has done all of the programming and amateur hour? Most of the player created mods for games are amazing.
Main reason I bought Divinity was for the toolkit. I love games where I can play around and change things. So ~ great marketing on their part, they hit two audiences with one stone. RPG players and Sandbox gamers ^_^
(yes I class Divinity Original Sin as a sandbox game, since I can edit things)
