
Rule #137: Always waste time when you don't have any. But IMO tying one hand behind your back like this just because "you heard it could cause crashes" is a bit of a waste. If you don't like it, don't use it - you can always uninstall all that stuff. Maybe you could invest a couple of hours into seeing whether you like the options SKSE gives you? Just create a new character, run through the epilogue and see what's what. In fact, my game has less crashes now than when I was playing vanilla, and I have about 50 mods installed, including some relatively script-heavy stuff, like SkyRe, Deadly Dragons or Frostfall. If you stick to well endorsed popular mods and follow the instructions, a broken save is no more likely than in vanilla game. The script-altering mods that can actually mess up your game are usually big overhauls, or it can happen when you have no idea what load order is and don't read installation instructions. SKSE and SkyUI on their own are not much of a hassle, should take you about 3 minutes to set that up, and I'm almost certain that you'd change your mind after 10 minutes of testing.

In fact, I can't imagine playing with the vanilla interface and without the incredible convenience of MCM menus. I'm running Skyrim on an ancient crappy PC and I've never had problems with SkyUI or SKSE. Your choice, but you really might reconsider.
