Back when I used mods (I got tired of waiting for them to update, and a couple that I really liked wound up abandoned) I used to have a designaged "Vanilla" save that I would play in for a little bit to check the actual update, so that I could keep my main save with all the mods and CC protected until the various mods were updated. I didn't do any major storytelling in it or anything. Just had a household (or two) that I'd run through a day or so to see if the new update broke anything important.
I have that too. I use it for events. Events often dont work in a heavily modded saves.
