Hey! Just asking if the modpack would work without the space exploration mod? Or it is too much integrated into the tree? I hate all kind of space related stuff to factorio because i think its just dumb.

There's a lot of stuff specifically for integrating all the bits and pieces with the SE progression, so removing it isn't really viable.

Personally I would already be happy if I could disable the CME like in the base SE, but ATOM hides that particular setting.

That's probably a bit out of my scope. But if you're willing to do local edits I can tell you how to unhide that setting.

Hm, I think I already figured out which line I would need to comment out.
But I'm actually not going to mess around with anything.
ATOM looks like a carefully curated and really well-made pack, so it deserves to be played as is, with just the recommended mods and no shenanigans.

Eh, that's a very different philosophy to Factorio than my own, but whatever works for you.

Though I'd note, that's very flattering but... there's still some definite rough patches. (Among them being, as far as recommended mods might go, that you don't get bots at the start even though the mod page says you do. And there's also the issue where mod-added resources won't spawn on planets other than Nauvis without a patch to SE or my janky workaround mod.)