Windows 11, Intel Core i5 14400F base speed 2.5 GHZ, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4060 version 32.0.15.9155, dedicated GPU memory 8GB

All mods from cursed forge or patreon pages. I don't play any other EA or sims games.
The game doesn't recognise any mods, ever. NADA. All steps described I have tried at least once This is how I started:
I just installed the game yesterday (after a long absence) and wanted the 5 traits mod *only*. My sims had 3 traits.
I have uninstalled and re-installed the game twice. I have used revo uninstaller to wipe all sims/EA stuff, I manually delete the documents folder, including the "localthumbcache" file folder.
I have installed under program files, documents/sims4/mods and documents/electronic arts/sims4/mods.

The in game video capture was set to save in 'the same general area' of my computer at least once but nothing changed.
In game mods enabled+script mods+show mods on startup, nothing. Click mods list in game and it's empty. Restart computer and game, no changes.

I have tried other mods as well as the 5 traits mod, with/without the xml injector and/or core51 library in Mods folder. I have extracted the mods from their zip folders into mods and put the whole folders. I have restarted the computer and tried to install base game only but ea app forces you to download everything you own. I am completely at a loss here.