I wrote about the brand new Nexus mods app before, as it's quite a promising and exciting development for the future of modding (especially for Linux and Steam Deck). And now, they want your feedback.
Yesterday, July 1st, they announced the Alpha release of this next-generation mod manager and their new Product Manager got in touch to mention they "would be really keen to get feedback from Linux users". So this is your chance to ensure Linux (and Steam Deck) finally become a first-class citizen for game modding.
UX is pretty painful. I'm never sure if its bugging or if I'm doing it wrong or working and now needs me to do some other step.
I've modded to hell and back with Minecraft, Skyrim, and every Paradox game. So it was kind of shocking just how hard modding in Linux was with Vortex.
The same reputation extends to Windows too so I don't think it's a Linux specific issue.
I like the UX as it's pretty powerful but I'm mindful of being ancient and having spent nearly a decade working with arcane telco applications. I have the opposite of your complaint - I like that it does periodic checks and will notify you of detected problems and usually give you a button to press to solve it.
My biggest pain usually comes in load order management. Usually this is because this is mentioned nowhere but in a note at the bottom of the mod description that might say something like "near the top" or "after mod x". I don't know how Steam just handles this mostly but I have a feeling it might be strong categorisation of mods.
It seems alright, until you use almost any other mod manager, then you wonder why Vortex is so clunky. It works fine for simple modding, but once you want to adjust load orders its annoying af. The UI is pretty atrocious in places and it takes more clicks than it should to do things. Admittedly I havent used it for a few years, so it might have been updated a lot.