Well I finally started a new game on survival, after having looked up a few mods to make it better. Have to say I'm really liking it. Rather than just turning on fast travel I found a mod that enables it between settlements that are linked by supply lines. That's given me a gameplay reason to develop new settlements. I also use the campsite and backpack mods, so I basically carry around a bed to save, rather than having to spend large amounts of time replaying parts of the game after dying.
The best mod to save me time and make the game more enjoyable has to be the def_ui and item sorting combo ( I think this needs the armor and weapons keyword mod as well ). It's so much easier to sort and store loot with this. Before one of the first things I would do on a playthrough is build some sort of house in Sanctuary with multiple storage containers for various categories of loot - weapons, armor, food, etc. I just realized yesterday I'm level 15 and still using the one container I built next to the workshop in Sanctuary. It's easy enough to find what I'm looking for I don't feel the need to spread it out.
In general I'm finding that as long as I keep my damage up as much as possible, with mods and perks, there's no real bullet sponginess to any enemies, with the exception of legendary ones.