Two (IRL) days in and loving it

I'm about 23 days in game time in and I'm still in the meadows biome, haven't even tried to beat the first boss yet. Absolutely loving it. I'm in no rush, and I'm just soaking up the gorgeous scenery and sunsets and learning (very slowly) how to kill deer with the bow. Seems like for every yard away from you they are, you aim ten yards above theirs heads lol.

Apart from finding out enough info about the game to decide whether to buy/play it in the first place, I'm playing this game completely blind. No idea if I'll need those 50 dandelions but that's what first playthroughs are for, right?

Which brings me on to I guess the main point of my post. I know there are mods out there, but would you recommend a fresh player leaves them alone until they're fully familiar with the vanilla version, or are there any that are essential for QoL?

As an example, one very very minor "grumble" I have is that chest space is really really stingy – now I know I can get a mod that increases that size, but is it that small for a reason that I'm not aware of? Or does everyone else play with a bigger inventory with mods?