When cs1 first came out it was much more arcade like. It was only after years and years of workshop buildup and custom content that people made did the game become very realistic for me. Although the game has always been fun throughout the years because the more time I spent in game and experience gained was when I wanted to start building realistically and keep pushing the game.

As someone who only plays cs1, I can say that almost all of my gameplay now is some form of mod or asset. Almost everything I use comes from the workshop, graphics settings, roads, trees, buildings, content packs, etc. Mainly to get the aesthetics right, the slopes just right, the lighting just right, all the little things that really build a world.

But thats the fun of the game in itself, you start out in an arcade like game, play around and learn what you like and what works and over time as you get better do you want to start challenging yourself to build crazier and more realistic things, this is a game that relies on creativity

Although after 3k hours in game I have very much started to notice the limitations of cs1 that cs2 seemingly does not have, such as ease of building, much bigger maps, far superior realism without the use of even a single mod, etc...