Rubber_Soul

Thank you! That is exactly how I thought it would work. I'm just glad the STEP guide now explicitly states that there are no benefits to using loose files over BSAs in MO (pretty sure it encouraged unpacking some time ago), so that other "average" users wouldn't make the same mistake. I'd say there even needs to be a sort of warning against it, unless the user knows what they're doing.

Okay, so please excuse me if the question I'm about to ask has already been answered (pretty sure it has), but after untold hours of reading, this question still lingers. Up to this point I have already extracted all the bsas using MO except for the Unofficial Patches. I don't know whether this is STEP's fault for making it seem as though there's some advantage to bsa extraction, or my own for not making absolutely sure that, as a standard user, I fully understood the ramifications for doing so (and until this thread, I thought there were none). So after completing my STEP installation, the only bsas I have in my archives tab are the Unofficial Patches, and the DLC, and they are all unchecked, while their plugins are checked, with everything else mostly identical to the extended STEP setup, and this is how I've been playing my modded Skyrim up till finding this thread. So my question basically is, is there anything particularly wrong with my setup? Because from what I gather from this thread, I think there might be. A more specific question would be: Would the mods that are supposed to be overwritten by the Unofficial Patches (like "Distant Decal Fix", and "Consistent Older People") be so? I ask this question because of this part in the OP: The part in red is what has me worried. Anyway, sorry for being long-winded (can't help it), and thanks in advance to anyone who responds.