I like to have mods at the beginning so I can see major break points for separate saves. One like the ones Sancho does that gives the data to make those decisions is helpful. I still tend to play my primary route the way I want to, but I also know where I need to have a save point to go back and get other scenes/achievements/etc. I don't use a gallery mod until I've exhausted my routes and still see that I've missed something - seeing how it played out tells me what I may need to go back and do.
With,, always with.
Specially If the mod includes a patch and a wt, I will play with the mod.
Very few games now are vanilla but are censored from the start. So you will need a mod/patch to play it as intended.
So i'm not sure what you mean by vanilla. The AS IS these days are all censored or pretending to be Land Lady's with daughters that have no relation to me what so ever.