>>714802218
>Am I missing something?
Yes, quite a ton of free content.

The sort of content depends heavily on the game and the mod's scope.

Skyrim for example is known for some of the most surface-level slop mods, often being mere model-swaps for titty monsters and shit.

Older games, like Doom and Half-Life, on the other hand have countless fan-made map packs, and even Total Conversion mods - essentially brand new GAMES made using the engine as a base. You may know these small titles such as Counter-Strike and Cry Of Fear.
Mount & Blade: Warband also essentially revolves around its modding community. They've recreated maps and gamemods for everything between LotR and Star Wars.

STALKER's modding on the other hand mostly has focused on restoring cut content and / or expanding the existing potential. Recently, this was taken a whole new level with the fan-made open source fork of the entire X-Ray Game-engine, enabling crazy overhaul mods.

At the end of the day, however, I always, ALWAYS recommend starting without any sort of big mods. Play the OG game in as vanilla-state as possible, so you know what is the base truth. This will help you choose mods that are more to your liking, and actually recognize the changes they make.

Play Doom.