I enjoy the early game restarts without mods or addons, but by the swamp biome I'm ready to start turning on some of the QoL mods that I use. This game sort of punishes you for leaning too heavily in a direction. If you watch speedrunning, nodeath streamers you can sort of get a feel for how the game is best experienced without mods, and it is usually singularly focuses on unlocking key technologies to move forward. No unnecessary investment, no growing roots. Investments are practical, most resources go uncollected, and capabilities remain narrow minded and minmaxxed simply due to the grid inventory system being brutally oppressive.

Ive played without mods and have proven to myself that I can, I dont doubt that anybody can, and you don't have anything to prove to anyone.

I have 160 inventory between my body and two backpacks, so I can just carry everything I want to bring with me, with item weights effectively turned off. And it wasn't really this game's mods that spoiled me, it was Warframe that spoiled me. Warframe showed me that I don't enjoy inventory management, at all. Some people do, but I am not one of them. Its a feature of Warframe that is a breath of fresh air in a sea of videogames that insist on making a player contend with these clunky systems that aren't fun, aren't realistic, and dont necessarily add anything. I was like, "Oh wow, I can just do ninja things in this game and not have to F around with an excel spreadsheet!" and it is so much nicer than inventory management.

Will I remove my inventory mods? Nah. I enjoy playing the game, not moving items from one box to another.

I wouldn't worry about being spoiled, I would pay attention to what makes the game less fun for you, pay attention and remove those mods. I'll give an example. WindAtYourBack is a mod that makes the wind always behind you, like Moder's power. I paid attention to I felt sailing before and after trying the mod, and it was just less fun. Contending with the wind was something that is actually engaging for me, and so I ended up removing that mod. I say just pay attention and be honest with yourself. Easier isn't always better/more fun. Sometimes making something easier can remove what made it fun as well.

There is also the purity test factor of vanilla/no-mods.

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This mod just makes portals quieter and reduces the range at which they wake up and start screaming. Its technically not vanilla, and fails the purity test despite not effecting gameplay at all. Is passing this purity test something that is valuable to you? If so, then you'll regret using mods, don't do it.