I think I remember reading somewhere that the Game of the Year edition includes some of those big bugfixes... Is that true? Or am I thinking of something else?
Actually, I'm starting to regret starting this thread. I was having a great time, unbothered by some of the things that might have been improved in later games, or that might turn out to be less awesome than they seem at first glance. I'm having fun just wandering around, exploring and slowly learning what is what on my own. It seems everyone else has much of the game basically memorized, and now I've inadvertently learned more than I wanted to about certain characters and groups and places and quests. I've been told that the graphics should be better - I had no problem with the way they are to start, but now I have the unconscious nagging in the back of my head telling me I should try to make it better. At this point, I don't want to know which house is most powerful - part of the joy of the game is figuring that out for myself. And I definitely don't want things like "turn left at this fork and something will happen to give you special equipment." That's the sort of thing I want to be surprised by, as a result of exploring.
So as difficult as it will be, I will probably stop reading this thread already, until I've spent a lot more time exploring the game for myself. I'm sure the mods are great, but for me, mods are something you do when you run out of base game to play, and I still have a lot more base game to play before I'll even begin to want to change anything. I never mod a game right from the start, unless there's a huge game-breaking bug that needs to be fixed. I'm fine with a few things not making sense or being more difficult than they need to be. I can create my own explanations as to why. The guards have a hive mind, maybe. I'm an outlander - it's easy for me to accidentally break a rule, like wearing the guards' armor in front of them, that leads to me being chased out of the city and never accepted there again. No problem. Once I've gone through it all once or twice, then I'll look for mods to make it different, and new and interesting again.
So carry on, discuss away, and I will do my best to resist the temptation to peek. When I'm a lot further along, maybe after I've at least completed the main quest, I'll come back and read through again.