I play without mods. I essentially make my own story progression which I like doing. I actually was irritated by story progression in TS3 and as a result found that I could really only play one household per save. This meant I had many saves and would end up abandoning them.
Now, I have numerous sims that I've made or played with interacting with each other. I have about hit the 200 sim limit for playable sims so I'll probably need to make some choices about my top 200. I'd probably be fine with story progression if I could mark out the households that I'd want to exempt from it but in the way I'm playing, I like not having it.
At this time I do not play with other mods or CC. I'm hesitant because of the needs to constantly update those mods. Maybe whenever the game is finalized I'll consider it. Even then, I don't know. I don't have a need for CC. As for mods, I'd think about MCCC or those added gameplay mods but not while the game is still adding content. I really don't want to risk messing up the game.
