EpicLoot, Monsternomicon, Better Continents, Bone Appetit, and the mod to generate up to 5* creatures that I can never remember. There's another 30+ hours for you.

Sounds like the easiest way for you would to be to mod the game into a more condensed experience. I haven't modded yet but yes when it comes to things like copper mining and ore running, 999 times out of 1000 you are already going to know how it ends before you even start. I couldn't imagine myself getting endless joy from parts that I find neither challenging nor creative.

There's actually a lot to do so don't let anyone shame you for not enjoying 100% of the activities.

You've got choices. You could make metal recipes more lenient so that the stuff that would normally be dumped on gear upgrades can instead act as surplus for building. You could make metals lighter so that more cargo can be carried in one go. You could multiply drop rates so you can get more of something from the same spot. Or you could just remove teleportation restrictions.

Instead of mitigating the dull moments, maybe a challenge run could add excitement to them. It's not for me to say what challenges. The 'don't use X' challenges seem a bit basic to me, like they will just make you play almost the same but slower.

I think EpicLoot looks exciting but to play a run using that, you've really got to want that shorter playthrough experience.

Sorry to hear your feelings about this game.

I found it enjoyable. More of a "it's the journey, not the destination" kind of experience. I spend a lot of time exploring, getting side tracked, and building pointless things ( a bridge across a river I could cross in 5 seconds by swimming, built just... cuz). And every once in a while, I'd go gear up and beat one of the bosses.

I thought this game was just about beating the bosses...

As @Jev writes the goal is to defeat each boss.

The game is not really designed to be a persistent open world type experience like many MMOs (as well as some single player games) are created to be.

It has a very linear, but enjoyable, path to an end goal. That goal being to defeat each biome 'boss'. Even the in-game lore reveals this.

From your list of things you miss it seems games like Red Dead Redemption, Fallout 4, Rust and other world builder/survival games would offer you more.

This isn't exactly an RPG... And, no, this game is also not only about slaying bosses, either...

This game is mostly about surviving in a harsh wilderness. Gathering, crafting, farming, raising lifestock, building, mining. That's the main game loop. It's a survival sandbox.

You can actually play the game without ever laying hand on a boss. Or using portals. Or both. Or maybe you want to make it harder and turn off the map?

There are many ways to play this game, but it is not:
a. an RPG.
b. a pure action title.

As for the topic: There are many mods available through the "ThunderStore" mod-manager, which I would highly recommend installing if you want to dabble with mods. It helps you to keep your mods up-to-date. There's a huge online download repository with over 1500 mods to choose and download from, all through the manager. ThunderStore can also resolve dependencies, and you can individually en- or disable mods, or disable them all together for a plain vanilla experience in case something goes totally wrong.

Mind, IronGate currently does not support mods, and you're on your own when you encounter an issue with them. Just a friendly reminder.