I've never had any problem with vanilla skryrim. I've got 200 mods going and I still don't have a problem, besides the occasion CTD. I also have a mod that auto-saves every few minutes as long as your not in combat, even that occasional CTD is more of a minor annoyance than anything else.

CTDs, freezea,,,with no mods, when Skyrim ran without problem. Hmmm, then there's the huge drop off of people even visiting the forums. Big Thumbs Down.

I am surprised that i actually managed to finish dawnguard without a single issue or bug despite the fact that i am running more than 70 heavy mods(monster mod,monster wars,deadly/mighty dragons and such)
Now hearthfire on the other hand.....well i have lot's of issues with that one.