Well, I'm not in the target audience because it's LA (They've got no elves! What kind of an era is that?) and a fairly large game (all endgames are Awful for me
) but I skimmed over the change log you posted.
The overall impression I get is that these mods ramp up the power level, particularly on the SC side of things. My preference is to tone things down and SCs are my least favorite part of the game so it's not really my cup of tea but I think this could be a fun game for people who do like SCs (which is likely a majority).
Maybe part of the reason people hesitate is uncertainty about all the changes these mods make (I'm still discovering new things about the latest CBM changes, never mind all that's involved here). So I think you may be right that using only AwesomeGods would be easier since you'd only have to examine a couple dozen pretenders at the beginning of the game but then it would play out as normal.
Edit: Also, I know you like larger games but it's a bit easier to try something different in a smaller game than in one that may go on a long time and you could be stuck with mods/settings you don't like.