Yeah I pretty much agree w/ all of that Mael.
You can play on Survival though, it's pretty hard. At least, it was once I got to the first super mutants (they come very early). And I'm not allowing myself to use Power Armor just yet...
You prob wont get it till the mods though and that will make your experience better than it otherwise would be right now.
I'll have to check out Requiem though. Skyrim was the easiest game of all time for me. I died like twice from stupid shit.