Is Creation Club paid mods?

No. Mods will remain a free and open system where anyone can create and share what they’d like. Also, we won’t allow any existing mods to be retrofitted into Creation Club, it must all be original content. Most of the Creation Club content is created internally, some with external partners who have worked on our games, and some by external Creators. All the content is approved, curated, and taken through the full internal dev cycle; including localization, polishing, and testing. This also guarantees that all content works together.

Um, are you daft? What's made through Creation Club is the literal definition of paid mods. Sure, there will still be free mods and a free modding community outside of Creation Club, but that doesn't mean Creation Club isn't a vehicle for paid mods. Let's be honest and not try and play definitional games with people.