I use some CC for clothing just for a little added variety. I don't have *that* much. I also have some added CC clay hairs (I hate alpha hair generally speaking). I have very little actual object/build CC. I also use custom skins but I find that they aren't totally necessary as I find the default EA skins are the first that aren't totally hideous. Same with custom eyes.

But the most essential CC in this game that I cannot live without: Eyelashes. SERIOUSLY. They went to all this effort to give us realistic looking sims (If thats what you aim for when you create, I do) but NO bloody eyelashes! (Well just a line really) So I use realistic 3D lashes from Kijiko. Not just for my female sims but also for my males.

Because they're used on top of the base game, not instead of it. If I see a mod I like and think "I wish I could have that tandoori chicken meal in my game" and see that it's free and doesn't require registation, I can download it and use it. Then in game I have a tandoori chicken meal addition, but the base game food is still available.

Because mods make my game less annoying and stupid. And also more entertaining!

CC, because I'm a hoarder. And what better to hoard that free stuff.

I use CC to have a bigger variety of items to decorate my houses. Why bother buying stuff packs that add furniture when you can get good stuff for free in websites like ModTheSims?

And I use mods because EA has good ideas, but turns them into crap with their unfinished games and 40 euro bugged game packs, and skilled fans have to fix the bugs and glitches of EA's broken games. EA must thank players for fixing the crap they make. I 've seen mods to improve lightning, remove blur, fix lag, etc. All the things that should come in the original game.