Usually it's just a legal ass-covering, but in this case, the project most likely depends on F4SE and the address library, which injects stuff at specific places in memory. Theoretically a cracked exe could work, but given something is likely changed from the original, all memory pointer addresses those two previous tools hook into and or override could be wrong. It's less of a piracy thing, and more of a "We don't want to troubleshoot things that may require us to do illegal things". Besides, the issue would have to be fixed in the original libraries, not the mod.
Xideta
FemShep was in game sculpted until the third game, which is why it looks weird and changes so much from game to game. BroShep on the other hand was a 3d scan of Mark Vanderloo I believe.
This feels like something blown more out of proportion if you actually read Paradox's reply, and of course trust it. (Reddit warning)
The highlight for me is that it seems more based on being able to add lines in the future, without having to drag the actor back into the studio for 1-3 new lines only (And that's on the generous side for what gets added per DLC). Paradox claims the original voice artist gets a fair commission from the usage of their voice for new lines, which would be nice if it's true.
It's based off Tachoyami(or whatever the one that was recently near nuked was called), and can be found googling a little. It's annoying, but they got sued, and this was their way of protecting themselves.
God, Take-Two is probably the scummiest, dumbest, and greediest game publishing company around. I know that most companies of this type are appalling, like Activision/Blizzard, Ubisoft, or EA, but I feel that they've fallen to the point where it's expected to be bad. Take-Two has been, in my opinion, just as shitty in forever, but the success of GTA and RDR2 makes them slip people's minds completely.
And this came right after they banned el_xox, a vtuber, indefinitely for "nudity", though the model they used was just zoomed in so you just couldn't see below the shoulders, instead of actually being naked.
Seems they got unbanned though, but good on twitch to put their more out less already unwritten simp-streamer rules in writing.
It's just how things get over time, people will take out something others may consider fun, to instead boost performance. Really an inevitable optimization, as something like this could have been done by human testing and external logging, instead of an external tool to simulate attempts.
In regards specifically to Trackmania, the best solution to my mind is to split the leaderboard between analogue inputs and keyboard. I know that's basically letting the program win, but it exists now, and unless they introduce random physics or performance, the door can't really be shut.
In terms of speed running, this has also been done in other games, such as TAS runs or the AI they used in SMP64 to find new strats. I don't really seeing it going away, even if it makes runs less bespoke and more like generic IKEA furniture.