SME-FT- VS Mutagen

To answer your question, though, I would look at SMEFT.

smeft is a wabbajack mod list containing all the essentials for modding, but it should be unnecessary if you're using dragonborn's fate, sorry for confusing you by throwing so many words lol

Pro tip: even if you don't want to use Wabbajack for anything else, install SME(FT) as the base to build on top of. The name is short for Skyrim Modding Essentials (Fixes and Tools) and gives you exactly that; bugfixes, engine improvements, and all the tools you could ever need to build your own modlist from scratch. This will save you a lot of time and hassle when building your own list, as almost all prerequisites are already installed and critical improvements to the vanilla game won't be skipped due to lack of knowledge. You won't regret it, trust me.

SMEFT is a wabbajack mod list that has exactly what you're looking for. It contains all the essential utilites, plugins, and bug fixes.

Just want to point out anyone looking for a good starting point should check out SMEFT on wabbajack. This will save you the headache of getting all the essential mods/tools. It's a perfect base to start. https://eziothedeadpoet.github.io/SME-FT-/

better yet, use wabbajack to download a solid base for modding with all the bugfixes included: https://eziothedeadpoet.github.io/SME-FT-/

Here some learning resources and a list that might be for you to start with. - https://github.com/LivelyDismay/Learn-To-Mod/wiki - https://eziothedeadpoet.github.io/SME-FT-/

I'd just do it using Mutagen instead.

Then I remembered Mutagen and Synthesis and had a patch working inside of a couple of hours.

Ideally we would have/get a loot alternative that uses something like the Mutagen Library to sort plug-ins based on their internal records and not their names while still allowing those custom community maintained sort rules.