I ran into the same issue trying to load a personal mod alongside the Restoration Project. My changes weren’t taking effect because RPU’s dat files were loaded after mine and overwrote everything. I tried using ExtraPatches in ddraw.ini but no luck.
What finally worked was packing the mod into...
Silent Running is most useful for melee or crit-based sneak builds. For ranged non-crit builds, it's usually not worth it unless you're playing very aggressively with close stealth positioning.
Completely agree on BG3 pacing. It's like they crammed every possible encounter and cinematic into Act 1 and forgot that flow matters. DOS2 felt tighter and more rewarding, even without the budget.