I think perhaps your phrase "the vast array of guides, tutorials, and fan made tools that make modding possible at all" may be telling. I also have a considerable list of posts containing the many many questions I have asked over the past year or so regarding from how to wade through the "vast array" , find any , any at all, advice on where to go to get answers, and a far shorter list of cogent replies.

One answer I shall always cherish is the chap who told me I have not been around long enough, nor produced enough posts to rate any kind of cogent reply. (!)

Indeed, my questions were often met with a scolding to not ask using one's personal email as they always monitor the site and answer all questions. So I let some posts sit for months , waiting for any reply...and am still waiting.

But perhaps you are correct. I must be making this all up.

If you are telling me to wade though the vast array, I must sadly tell you that I do not have that much time. I tried. But I found I had questions. Questions the vest texts did not seem to answer, and I had no idea where to go to get some idea about where to go to get an answer of where to go. Hours of time spent got me to those questions. And when I found no one willing to answer them, I finally gave up.
And those of you who have been around this site or the other TW related sites for a while may have no idea how massive ( the vast array of guides, tutorials, ...) it is. The tone of reply is often condescending or at least impatient with one who is new, eager to learn, desiring to contribute, and naive enough to think such efforts, although novice, will be appreciated.

Note in point was my failed effort to find out how the unit files and their associated ui files articulate. But I've got more.

When a site ranks their members by how many thousands of posts they have done, and uses anagrams to explain other anagrams, and abbreviations to define other abbreviations, one can only get a strong sense of the vast array he is entering.

But perhaps I am just too simple minded: This is a culling process, and those how cannot cut (through) the mustard, surely could never contribute anything to the community. OK , I get it now.

The other gripe is folks with high modding credentials telling me that strategic map movement could not be modded and I should give up trying to make a mod to change siege equipment movement. Only the CA folks could make that change...Then a month later i found no less than three mods came out which have changed strategic map movement!.... some done by some of the very chaps who told me it couldn't be done.

So, why do I think that these sites have become exclusionary, and a little self-righteous...You tell me. I never appreciated condescension as an art form, until I ran into TW modding sites.