Here since nobody is offering any actual advice on mods, Here ya go

Pure QoL
-Craft From Containers
Pretty much what it says, lets you craft with items found in nearby containers

-Instant Monster Loot Drop
Again exactly what it says, no more waiting seconds for things to decide to poof

-FarmGrid
This is just a godsend, it takes the pain out of planting fields of crops

Mods I consider QoL that people will probably QQ over
-Any Portal
Lets you change the destination of your portal with a dropdown menu and a click

-Unrestricted Portals
Personally I restrict ore but allow ingots because I've already mined/transported/processed the ore once.

-Equipment and Quickslots
Paper doll and potion quicklsots for your character, still subject to weight limitations.

-Better Archery
Has a quiver you can eventually craft to sort out your arrows

-Speedy Paths
Never really noticed a benefit to it but supposedly makes travel along paths slightly faster, incentive to build roads.

-Floating Items
Does what it says, no more killing something in the water and having the loot sink just out of reach. Partucularly helpful with serpents because unlike their meat (which floats) their scales are coded to sink. Loved finding that out after hours of trying to farm scales.

Mods that I feel make the game outright better
-Epic Loot
Where to begin.... this just adds so heccin much to the game, ranging from of course epic loot drops, a bounty system and an enchanting system that gives you a reason to farm the bosses outside of getting their base game macguffin drop and never caring about them again.

The possible down side there is if you get "lucky" you can get an item that outpaces your natural progress in the game. EG having a mob drop a bronze ax before you actually kill the first boss which unlocks the ability to smelt bronze. So that might be a selling point or a detractor, really depends on you.

Personally i think it added a lot more than the off possibility that it might bump you up in the tech tree in the early game. Still I'd probably play the game without this one for a bit, if for nothing more than to appreciate how much it adds.

Technical mods
-Configuration Manager
Depending on the mods you end up going with this will help with some of the configuration. Especially if those mods have additional menus that might need to be repositioned to your liking (like the food/potion quick bars in Equipment and Quickslots)

Visual overhauls
-Valheim HD
Things seem slightly crisper YMMV

-Esckylar Troll Visual Upgrade
honestly I don't think I could go back to the normal trolls


Thats most of what I come up with while sorting through the some odd 22ish mods I've been running with Valheim.

The obvious downside being that when Valheim updates it will likely break some of the mods if you're using them and you'll likely need to wait for them to be updated before you can safely jump back into the game.

Less likely a problem with mods that mostly change the UI but for something like Epic Loot that adds so many items and systems, it obviously becomes a more complex interaction.

Edit: spaced out a bit for easier reading