nonsense, the game won't CTD once if you don't mod it, imagine a crash on the xbox version... has anyone seen one?
the amount of .esp's is irrelevant, its the data they enter uniquely or replace in .esms, its the replacements which make skyrim unstable, and if you start replacing for the same cell multiple times with multiple .esp's then things start to go haywire, not to mention scripts that are badly written or inadequately removed after their respective esp is disabled.
i play skyrim with only the mods i want and use constantly to improve my enjoyment, if i don't approve of a mod or can't notice its effect immediately i remove it, my skyrim runs ok, my char is level 80, my savedgames around 20mb...
the game was not designed to be modded in the first place.
i think its important to be discerning.