Is modded Minecraft better than vanilla? No. Is it different? Yes. Does it have advantages? Yes.

Minecraft is absolutely not boring without mods. It's a sandbox game and sometimes adding things to your sandbox can be fun. But you absolutely don't need to add them.

I've played lots of modded Minecraft, but I've played a lot more of vanilla Minecraft. Sometimes having less makes you more creative. You could install a mod that gives you a "couch" block, or you could use stairs and position them just right.

It's all about the type of game you want to play. Mods are fine. Mods are fun. But do you need mods? No.

Definitely, I don't consider vanilla Minecraft boring but modded is way more enjoyable and fun for me.

Technically speaking, yes – depending on how you define "better". Minecraft, as software, is a nightmare. It's not well made in so many ways. Mods like Sodium and Lithium provide optimizations Mojang could have done themselves (though I think it's not really in their control what they work on, since Microsoft took over).

I also consider mods like "No Telemetry" to be a necessity.

minecraft is a sandbox.

There are many people that can have endless fun in a sandbox.

There are also some people that want to have shovels, sand moulds, hot wheels, actions figures, etc, to enhance their sandbox capabilities.

Its much the same for Minecraft.

For some people, Vanilla is all they need, and enjoy working within the limits of it.

For some people, they've had all the fun they can have with Vanilla, and now want more to expand their options and to enhance their experiences.

Neither one is subjectively better. Its simply a matter of what you want out of your game and experience.

tl;dr. If you are bored with minecraft, try mods. if you are happy with minecraft, then keep being happy.

I've tried a bit of ATM10, but I still spend most of my time in Vanilla. Many mods seem to focus on adding "tech" elements to Minecraft, which feel a bit out of place to me. There's something quaintly medieval about vanilla Minecraft.

I'm also uninterested in mods which "improve" the animations or graphics. It's a pixel block game! In my opinion, crude graphics are part of the simplicity and charm.

Hey! There also plugins! Join server with vanilla client and enjoy new things - protection, magic, technology, social things, economy, without installing a single mod.

At this point I don't split hairs with singular mods anymore.

What I do always have installed, however, is the Technic Launcher. Every few years I'll do a new Tekkit world and, by god, is it amazing and makes vanilla look lacking. And then you remember Tekkit runs on a 10 year old version of the game and you start to miss newer vanilla features.

I guess my point is, go big or go home. All that said, I have no idea if I'd be able to figure out Tekkit without the help of Yogscast videos from 15 years ago which is when I first played it.

No matter what, when I play on Vanilla servers I use clientside mods. Sodium, tweakeroo, and some other things.

Project ozone 3 is but that depends on your tastes.

there are many different options of mods and mod packs where as there is only one option of vanilla. vanilla isn't bad but if you played it a bit much eventually it does get boring and mods offer much more options.

edit: i also don't think vanilla has a vision or direction. it feels a bit they go in no certain direction while trying to add things that don't make anyone stop playing. where as a mod pack can change how minecraft plays a lot