We ARE fairly protective of our mods Ill give you that ,but its because they make the game so much better.
In fact, I wouldnt have given TES a second look if it wasnt for the moddability. The base games are okay, but nothing to write home about. I could NEVER tolerate vanilla Morrowind or Oblivion, and Ill play unmodded Skyrim exactly once, and solely as an opportunity to jot down all the stuff that needs to be fixed.
Also, it takes me 10-15 hours of research, downloading, installing, testing and all that to get a decent "modded install" to run stably with my usual 150-200 mods, so it sure as hell aint to make sure the game's easier. Its to make it longer and more perfect. And GORGEOUS.