The cracked launcher is the biggest headache. Many cracks bypass the Paradox launcher to prevent online checks, meaning you cannot tick the mod boxes normally.
A cracked version operates in isolation. It lacks the "launcher" integration that communicates with Steam. When a player clicks the "Play" button on a cracked executable, they are launching a game that, by default, believes it has zero access to external content.
, you must manually place the mod files and properly configure a .mod descriptor file so the Paradox launcher can recognize them.