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What separates Doom or Half Life mods from Skyrim and Minecraft mods in my mind is that Doom and Half Life mods are mostly new levels that aren't connected to the original game. Mods for open world games change the original experience, while mods for linear shooters create new experiences. They're both modding communities, but they aren't that comparable in their focus.

There are Half Life mods that change the original campaign and there are Skyrim mods that are disconnected from the original game, but they're not where most of the community focuses their energy or what most people play.

Skyrim and Fallout games do! Nexus and Wabbajack mod lists make it easy to install pre-made collections if you're not into tinkering. I like tinkering personally, as there are robust tools for resolving most conflicts efficiently. My last modlist was around 600 mods, and many custom lists have more than 1500.

With Skyrim, I would install a ton of mods and be like "Wow, I made the perfect version of this game. I don't know how my next load order can top that." Then I'd discover game changing gems I hadn't heard of before; get excited as new mods that massively improve the experience get released. The next playthrough would be better, because I know what I like and rarely install mods I end up regretting.

Part of what makes Skyrim modding so fun for me is making my own modlist. Every mod I install was chosen by me, and over time I've figured out what mods I would and wouldn't like. It's so fun and easy to make a custom load order that some people never get very far into a game before restarting to change things. I actually do manage to finish the game, finishing every quest and exploring every mod to its fullest. I rarely experience save corruption or game breaking bugs because I learned how to avoid mods that are unstable or poorly made. I figured out how to make a stable modlist, as well as one I actually enjoy playing.

Skyrim gets criticized for being based on character rather than player progression. Your character gets better, but you don't get better. Modding changed that, but not exactly by making me more skilled at playing. Instead, I'm better at getting fun out of the game. The main fail state is getting bored, not dying to enemies. Having fun is what I've actually gotten good at.

Nexus has collections that function similarly. There are also external self-installing packs like Nolvus (contains 2.2k mods and 400GB)