This is where I disagree with you though. How is it a shitshow to install any mods nowadays and how would be making a game easier? There's nothing stopping you from installing mods for anything nowadays.

Anything from Bethesda, you literally just drop the files into the game's directory and activate through the dozen mod managers there are. You could do it yourself too if don't like mod managers, it's a single line of the filename in a text file to activate any esp or esm for a gamebryo/creation engine. You don't even have to do that for texture/mesh replacement either, it's just drag and drop. Same with engine fixes and script extenders, drag and drop or just run a bat file.

The other big modding scenes for Bioware games or CDProject are exactly the same. Download, drop into directory and activate through a manager.

Want to hack or translate a rom? Load a patch and just point to the rom and select a out directory. Want to install CFW or console hacks? Load a website with the exploit on the console and it'll do all the work for you. Even server emulators are easy, I can have my wow server up in four mouse clicks and I didn't have to write a single line of code or do any database work.

I'm in a lot of modding and emulation communities and I honestly don't see where your argument is coming from.