Mods are annoying. People should accept the judgement of the game-makers and not try to foment these illegitimate customizations. You play the game. Hopefully your friends can be convinced to play the game in your party. You beat the game. And then you find something else to do. People who disagree with this are people who are in love with a fantasy about what gaming could be, not what it is.
It's like if I'm reading a story and I want to change the plot. I can re-write parts of the story and try to convince people to accept my story instead of the official one. I could write my own story that no one would ever read. Or I could just resign myself to the fact that the sort of audience that reads books prefers what the authors write, not what I could add to it.
Yep, Vanilla is great. Mods are best used when after a few plays throughs when you'd like to experiment with a few things. Some people want side characters and quests fleshed out, some want items added that they feel should &/or will enhance the game. Mods cover a multitude of different "needs". Most people don't add mods to cheat they just want a few sprinkles on their ice cream.
