I did for quite awhile when I first got Sims 4. I did play with just some recolors/skin detail CC I found or made myself but eventually I had to get mods. I had a horribly hard time getting my Sim's facial features the way I wanted to so I grabbed the infamous slider mod for 4. Later on I grabbed a height slider mod then some game play and graphics mods as I got really bored with the vanilla game.
I do have Sims 4 installed on another machine that I might try and play without mods just for giggles. I know the game has been updated a lot (especially sliders) since I first started playing so it'll be neat if I can recreate some cartoony looking Sims without mods and messed up townies walking around everywhere :lol: .