I have a lot of things to say about FU in particular (none are good) but I think it'd be better to just offer alternatives like Feast of fire and smoke, shellguard or galaxy in conflict. I don't think any are as large as FU either.

The lil hylotl crab is adorable by the way I wonder what dreams of world domination it's having.

aye man same I mean already jumped ship a loong looong time ago my main big mods are shellguard and gic and lately knightfall (alas im not exactly getting the hang of the craftings stuff but stilll)
main annoyance is just the fact that Radien/Xi dont have like their seperate Fu-less version cus hurr durr hard coded to only work with Fus setting n mechanic or whatever
also do feel freee to spill curios on yo own personal experience with it, am well aware of all the thieving and allegations toward sayter n stuff

also also hehe probably dreamin of world domination :3

I dont like FU, its way too confusing for no reason and everything just feels unnecessary
Why spend all your time farming for random ass obscure resources and shit when you can just make vanilla weapons and call it good XD
I vanilla balance all my mods.. All one of my mods.. But I stopped playing starbound, I already finished the game so many times I know the entire story by now. Starsector is my new best friend XD
Also maybe I havent updated aforementioned mod but I swear fracken did something or the other to fuck it up somehow cause theres no way that one crafting table I made wouldnt work, I play tested my mod on three different runs >:c
(The mod is the Super Cool Laser Guns, as far as I know its the best and only dedicated laser gun mod XD)

I feel yo there, in my case I just / admin studf after trying to play it legitimately for a while bc i unironically hit a road block bc radien I had couldnt go on magma planets to get pyrite or some shit for the cooling ep esque thing and better gear n eventually just got fed up from that loop of try it legit > get road blocked by dumb resources that are way to grindy to obtain > admin mode > regret bc stupid „yOu hAVe tO plAy iT lEgIt oR iTs RuIns ThE pRogreSs“ mindset > repeat

A bit random, but.. what would be your recommended "best way to play Starbound" today?
Of course including certain birbs. ^^

Uhh its honestly a matter of taste, in my own ways of playing I use rpg growth,

Galaxy in conflict (albeit Gic is currently changing up massively and is a bit confusing/unfinished in some planets and I assume lore aspects and from certain comments ive seen unstable even)

, shellguard for the different weapons n side story it adds,

Starextensions as it overhauls starbounds code and make it run smoother/add Quality of Life stuffs

and lastly just lots of Avali mod addons and githubs triage version as its somewhat more actively updated and allows me to change a certain hair/plumage‘s sprites to fit my vali better and certain small vehicle mods, smarter crew I think, ship pets one, Xs mechs and titanbound (adds the mechs from titanfall)

Albeit my current run is as a Hylotl because im tryna 100% the game for once and for all, the only achievements im missing is the colony quests one, the bug catching ones, fossiles and the mine like a ton of blocks with a matter manipulator on a single planet one

Thanks) That'll help.