During my months of play, I had 3 full playthroughs each on a different difficulty, I was only using a balanced crafting mod that made it so that unavailable recipes were fixed and there was some extra stuff for crafting/bs 5+ which I can't recall having used.
SNIP
Well presented, thank you.
I diagree with the changes, but not because of the effect it has on gameplay. Rather, it goes back to something I month or so ago: in a single player game like this, "balance changes" are unnecessary and potentially harmful. The best way for players to balance their game is to let them do it themselves.