Did I cook my playthrough?

Decided to pick Skyrim up again, after not playing it for.. a decade Im guessing. Got the itch, hardly remembered anything from the story.

Never played with mods, but decided to look around to see what was out there. Ended up just adding two, one texture enhancing one and the other immersive weather. Just as I was about to start, I saw the USSEP, an unofficial patch mod. Figured, why not, bug fixes sounds good, so added it as my 3rd and final mod.

Start has been stellar, ended up in Falkreath early by chance, became Thane, got Lakeview Manor explored the SW area. Got a quest that lead me over to Riften (some face changer) and here is where things started to go over board. Was around L30~ Forging myself an Elven set, and felt rather strong when I got thrown Ebony armor pieces in chests, expert mage robes worth 2.5k (in bulk), jewelry in spades.. I sorta feeling like Im swimming in gold, and high stats gear. Makes quests, rewards, exploring in terms of rewards feeling meaningless.

As I recalled back in the day, gold was quite a struggle at start, vendors didnt have much, quests didnt offer a ton, loot could be far between drops. But things felt challenging and meaningful when progressing. Is it the USSEP mod doing this? I cant remove it frol creation club load order, as it prompts I need it for the save file to load.

Is this save cooked? Is USSEP the culprit? Would a fresh start, give me a "slower" progression if I remove it, even if it would suck to lose my char?