I built this pack because I wanted Create to actually be the reason you're playing, not just another mod bolted onto a normal survival pack. Almost everything else in here either plugs into Create directly or gives you a reason to go use it.
The core loop: build contraptions to automate the farming/mining/processing grind instead of doing it by hand, then spend the time that frees up exploring. Create Diesel Generators gives you power once waterwheels stop cutting it, Enchantment Industry automates enchanting, and Big Cannons let you build actual siege weapons instead of cheesing raids with TNT.
Getting around is where the aeronautics part comes in. Create Aeronautics and Immersive Aeronautics let you build your own airships out of Create parts, so how well one flies depends on how you actually built it. That's the whole point of the theme — flying isn't a gimmick, it's how you reach stuff you can't get to on foot, like floating structures and sky ruins.
Exploration goes past overworld/nether/end too. The Aether's a full dimension with its own progression, and Deep Aether adds even more underneath it once you think you're done. The End's overhauled with real biomes and cities instead of the empty void, and overworld terrain gets reworked so you're not staring at the same few biomes forever. On top of that there's a stack of dungeon mods (When Dungeons Arise, Yung's suite, Moog's structures) adding actual structures with loot tables built for them, not vanilla loot with the names swapped.
For magic I went with Ars Nouveau — you build your own spells out of glyphs instead of picking from a list, and it's got its own Create addon so spells can feed into your contraptions instead of being a totally separate system. Combat gets extra weapon mods for ranged, stealth, and melee so it's not just vanilla sword spam the whole way through.
The rest is quality of life: better storage, more building blocks, and a bunch of performance mods running underneath so the pack doesn't fall over despite everything going on.