Most of the mod packs are outdated, there's generally only a few of the mods still working with 0 issues. I've been playing a vanilla-ish run because of it. Personally I'd stick to some Conquest Tweaks and SFCRevamp mods and avoid SfCArics. Though, Chris68 has been trying to fix them up, updated files are on the Discord. Be warned you may run into game breaking bugs if using all the mods in the packs.
As for portraits/bodies, there is only one choice (IMO): https://itch.io/t/3000638/link-fixed-preg-hopefully-fixed-minimally-fucky-diffus...
Strive 2 actually has character art for everyone this time, and it updates on equipped gear, so you do miss out if you use portrait packs, but the quality of this specific pack is just really good and probably worth giving up the base models. Though, start a new game with it installed first, or you will have to do save editing to fix older characters (not difficult, just annoying, and I wrote how to do it in the thread on last page).