MO2 is still the way to go for more control, but vortex isn’t too bad either, it’s just that most people use MO2 at least on the old sub. Mods are mostly preference. Even cleaning the vanilla master plug-ins is debatable. If you have the time, I would experiment with wabbajack lists. If you just want fixes/essentials and want to do everything else yourself, there is Skyrim Modding Essentials by Phoenix.
It will direct you to where you can download the mod. Premium isn’t necessary, there’s just some manual clicking involved and will take longer.