To be fair, a lot of HQM packs try to
make every mod require every other mod ("want to make a shaft? You need a silverwood wand core!"/"What do you mean, I need an ore magnet to craft a pulverizer?"/"Why does the recipe for a sludge boiler include a singularity?"), and I am not willing to allow this with RC. Additionally, I find it to be terrible design, and more of a lazy "look I made balance" attempt than anything requiring real design effort.
Editing the techtree does not usually cause crashes. It causes things like dependency loops or exploits, neither of which are going to be reported with "oh yeah, I changed this".
I both agree and disagree with this.
Main point: you're absolutely right to want your mod to not be compromised in that manner, as you have a very particular vision of it.
I also have not seen a lot of HQM packs, so cannot make any statement on them.
Counterpoint: A couple of examples of it done in a way I think is good are from Blood N Bones; machine frames requiring copper coils (not entirely unreasonable), and pistons needing red alloy. BnB has more, but these two I particularly liked, as they still made a sort of "sense" to me.
Also, it can be interesting to see normality subverted - so machines being made by Thaumcraft infusion, for example. This is clearly not what was intended by the mod authors, BUT in a particular setting it can be a fun hook that ties a pack together.
But.
As you've pointed out before, these packs are NOT a good way to learn a mod. They are in fact the opposite - to give people who are very familiar with mods a new challenge.
TL;DR, I actually don't disagree, I just think that with a coherent vision in a modpack designed to deviate from the norm, such integration can have its place; RoC, ReC et al are an exception to this though.
