Mods are awesome and the ability to make and use mods are some of the best things about PC gaming. Personally though I don't like using them that often.

1. they are a hassle. Hunting for the right mod can be a pain.

2. If I don't like it often I had to uninstall and reinstall the game to get it back to vanilla.

3. Mods often have vague decisions of the affect they have. Lacking the detail needed to make a decision of weather or not you want to mod your favorite game.

4. I find that I often have to finish the game at least once vanilla to know weather or not I like the affect of the mod.

5. Mods are often not play tested and can result in some undesirable things happening. I remember when I was playing System Shock 2 and thought about install a mod that would stop the enemies from spawning. However I later found out that had I installed such a mod I would've gotten stuck and not been able to finish the game.

Some of my favorite mods are Brutal Doom, Quake Epsilon and Eduke32. What I like most about these mods is that they don't affect the initial install. So you can go back and fourth between vanilla and modded and see what one you prefer.

What are your experiences with mods?

A right MOD changes the way you play game a wrong one can bring nightmares!!!

I prefer mods to be modular so I can pick and choose the changes I want and not apply the ones I don't.

An example of a bad mod is the Baldur's Gate 2 Fix Pack. It claims to be a bug fix, but then it does things like making certain spells not stack with themselves and (I believe) making Restoration spells not work on Simulacrua. Furthermore, all those changes are in the "Core Fixes" component, so if you don't want those changes, you have to do without fixes to potentially game-breaking bugs. For this reason, I refuse to use that mod, even though many consider it essential.

A better mod is the Tweak Pack, which lets you pick and choose which components you want.

Of interest, I actually saw a Skyrim mod whose only function is to revert one of the changes the Unofficial Patch made (namely the one to Fortify Restoration potion effects).

I agree with most of your points OP, the mods are terribly hard to sort thru and the descriptions are lacking. I usually base my choice on number of downloads and try to read reviews but still it feels iffy.

There is also a feeling that you are changing the game from what was intended so I usually go vanilla the 1st time.
There are plenty of older games that can only be enjoyed nowadays via mods for graphical enhancements and convenience tweaks however.

That is true. I didn't want to go into the whole "changing the devs vision" thing. But mods are often not play tested the the full game was. Which can mess things up.

Nintendo and Blizzard...

I agree with most of the points above. I tend to play vanilla even when mods are an allegedly better alternative (like in the case of JA2). But it's not that I don't like mods, I just find that very few are worth going through the hassle of searching, collecting, and managing them.

I enjoyed making mods much more than playing them. Actually, it's probably where I had the most fun in all my gaming career.

BURN!

Mods are a cool concept, but I only like the stable lore-friendly ones that fix bugs or add useful features (UI improvements, stash expansions, etc).
I could stand things like optional new areas\quests\npcs only if they're really well done, tested and balanced.

In any case, I try not to use too many mods (expecially in RPGs), because I fear bad glitches or game corruption O_o'

After finishing the main game, however, any crazy derpy mod is fine XD

I usually finish, or at least spend a lot of time with, the vanilla game first.
After that I'll add some fun mods that add things to the game that are still at least in the spirit/feel of the game.
So no instagib pistols or anything like that.
I like how they can make an 'old' game feel 'new' again ;)
The only downside is that it will occasionally make games less stable (yes, I'm looking at you Bethesda).

Haha. What I think you are encountering is one simple fact, these are not commercial offerings. In general most mods (at least until the steam workshop debacle) were unpaid fan work. For instance, did you volunteer your time to test mods out or make them modular? Even commercial releases come out heavily bug ridden.

Modders work for 95% is fantastic for a free additional component. You can pick and choose what you want to instal, and there are tools out there which can help with modding - wryebash, bigworld, nexusmod manager etc. The whole modding aspect has come on leaps and bounds over the last 3-4 years, some of the bigger mods - for instance Stalker ones, have instal programs which will do patching for you, copy over files to relevant areas, allow various tweaks and changes to be manually added etc. Far different to the old days of trying to hex edit files I can tell you.

Also, there is an old saying, you get out what you put in. If it takes a while to get Oblivion running with 50 mods, but the end result is a thing of beauty that does everything you want, then it is a real feeling of triumph.

With your point on re-installing, this shouldn't be a problem. Modding Morrowind which is quite old (although rebirth/overhaul work seemlesssly straight off) can be time consuming to get a fresh install each time, so the simplest solution, disc image all three discs, mount them in demon tools. On my SSD it takes around 1-2 mins to install the whole thing again.

As for point 5, learn how to interface directly with the engine, either via command line or console. I.e. in your example you would spawn the required person/item using console. There is generally some info out there on this if you google it.

You do have a valid point in point 4, its generally a good idea to play vanilla, at least to get an idea of what has changed. The only exceptions I would put here are bug fixes, maybe widescreen or resolutions patches, and other essentials - I mean just don't try to uninstall Pool of Radiance (later version) without the latest patch unless you like rebuilding your machine - prime example of how commercial enterprises are not much better than anything else.

Anyways, TL;DR version:
Mods are excellent and sites like Nexus, Moddb are a big help - use them as much as possible. And try to support the people behind them a bit, even just a post to say you enjoy them, or highlighting them in the communities to get visibility helps.

Oblivion: Was completely unplayable without mods to fix the UI.
Civ4: I cannot play it anymore without the BUG Mod (largely UI improvements).
Diablo2: I always mod out the XP-loss-on-death before playing, and a few other similar tweaks.
Torchlight1: I would not have played this fully through without the respec potion mod.
SimCity4: So much less fun without the NAM mod that fixes a lot of the traffic simulation issues.
And so on. You have that backwards. Steam Workshop is a horrible abomination that has done loads to make modding. Before Steam Workshop, you could get and use mods, no matter the source of the game. After Steam Workshop, there's one AND ONLY ONE place to get a mod, no matter what. And if they refuse/reject it? Tough luck. And if you want to archive your mods? S.O.L. Etc.

I'm quite fearful I won't get any of the mods for Age of Wonders 3, because idiots will be doing them via Steam Workshop and, since I have the GOG version, I won't be able to get any of them.

There are "mod libraries" that can be integrated into a product that aren't DRM platforms.

ALSO pet peeve : "vanilla" doesn't mean plain. It's its own delicious, complex flavor all to itself! Call it "plain" or "white" (as in white cake) if you want, but not "vanilla". Or just say "unmodded"/"unexpanded".

There are sites that allow you to download files from the workshop, which you can then archive and/or use. Though yeah, I agree that it's a pain in the ass.

I like "vanilla" games. I don't like mods, because they usually don't carry the vision of original game developers.

However, I like when game is open for modding, as it usually means ability to learn actual game mechanics, instead of blind guessing how things work.