I'm just some random user, (and a bit late), I don't have any affiliation with the original mod or author, but I've always enjoyed playing this mod with Space Age and see no reason why it should be required. I assume the author just originally made the mod with the intent to use it for their own Space Age play through, and didn't consider that people wouldn't want to use Space Age. You're right that it has no actual dependency on Space Age though, so I was able to get a compatibility fix working super quick.
I just uploaded Science Packs Equalore [lxi Fork] which is this exact mod, except it also runs without Space Age.
