Regarding EWA... I didn't know anything about it back then; I just picked mods myself and hoped they would be compatible. I didn't know how to edit or create mods, and I still don't. And one day, I lost the archive with all the mods I had found... and I was very happy when I came across EWA (although, as I later realized, I practically got everything ready-made; almost all the bugs had been fixed)... I wrote to Den about the crystal golem and another creature in the discussions; the game would simply freeze when using their ability, and their "level" was too low; it showed a very low level, but it should have been medium...
In general, EWA, in my opinion, is a masterful collection of mods that has its own launcher, useful utilities, and optionality in some aspects.