This isn't meant to be conflictual, but may seem so if only the first words are read.
The main difference between this game and the examples presented is specialty, focus, and limitation.
I have played many of them, still do, and many before from Zork until now. Each had it's
strength for me because they focused on a single theme/genre. Name dropping to follow:
F.E.A.R. = linear horror, but that is it. LFD = run and gun, Outlast series: Horror escape,
The Long Dark: = Severe survival.
The common denominator is a single genre single focus. With very little room for personalization
or expansion.
TFP is a primer game: Many of the things that are favored by individuals and groups are still there,
many are not, possibly because of changes in the game engine. I observed not only the game, but the
engine progression over the years. The vanilla, is just that, vanilla default. The rest is open for
personal interpretation and adjustment.
I label it as a primer, because like the original Xbox it was built purposefully to be hacked and
expanded upon. It has aspects of many genres with potentially conflictual and opposing rules meshed
together. A purchasing player is given models, Ai, terrain generation, 3d interactive buildings,
lighting, full con and destructibility, and most importantly the ability to shape their world the
way they see fit. The hard part is done, the rest is left up to what an individual or group wants.
It is an impossible request to demand that a single iteration of a format like this to be able to
simultaneously satisfy ever genre represented here all at once. Ergo comes modding, it is either
an accepted thing or not. To me its just rearranging numbers and pictures. It was intimidating at
first but with the help of those in the forum I like it now.
If you take 20 people split into 5 groups, different walks of life and nationalities, each group
a decade apart, it would be rare if not impossible to get all of them to agree on a single thing.
I only stopped modding for a while because I couldn't keep up with the updates. But there is a
temporary quell and it's opening the doors again.
No a person is not forced to mod, but the "option" is there intentionally to allow and not constrict
personal creativity.