Canary Save File Monitor was made by the one and only
@kinggath to try and track down a F04 core engine bug previously unknown and still unsolved, as is my understanding, and is able to monitor your save files for supported mods. It's a fairly new endeavour and more and more mod authors are adding canary support to their mods. The mystery bug the community is trying to track down this way is causing occasional data loss out of the blue, permanently corrupting save files. It's pretty rare also, I've not yet had a canary error pop up since I started using this.
Most, if not all of the scrapping mods break precombines, which is... basically bad (you can google that if you want to know more about the technicalities). So I completely avoid them. In general I try to check that a particular mod does not break precombines before I use it. I don't care so much if that happens somewhere out in the world, but I really make an effort and try to avoid it in my settlements.
I also avoid AE and anything that depends on it like the plague, these days. This is a touchy subject for some people, I know. Same with def_ui, and VIS or VIS-G. I can't say for sure if they are causing issues since my understanding of all things modding is not deep enough, I'm just personally not using them anymore.
Keep in mind, the modding community has learned a lot since the early days of modding FO4, and is still doing so. The tools have changed, also. Newer mods (sometimes) try to incorporate the experiences made in the meantime, and avoid errors mod authors made in the early days, because they just didn't know better. Some mods have been around for a long time, which of course does NOT necessarily make them bad, not at all. But it CAN mean they are a little outdated, or too bloated, or not optimized. Not everyone is willing and able to take a wildly successful mod and do a complete code re-write for a Version 2... ^^
That being said, I still sometimes intentionally use mods which I know are (potentially) causing issues, just because I like them. That's what mod profiles are for.
But then I expect things to break, sooner or later, and I know not to blame anyone for it.
And since I'm producing another wall ot text already, I'll add this:
I will occasionally remove a mod mid-game for test purposes. But if I want my saves to last, I either keep the mod in question in, or start a new game without said mod alltogether. In other words: Never ever remove a mod from a running game. It does not necessarily cause issues, but it's just a best practice not to do it.
Also, I try to remember not to scrap anything in game which a settler is assigned to (I look at you, buggy Tato plants in Abernathy). And especially not any powered objects, since that can fubar any settlement (ahhh sh... - I think I forgot and did just that yesterday. Crossing my fingers now...)
