As far as I know, the DLL thing is still required, so it's not a question of new or old way.
I don't use the dll in the framework download package, and ever since I started playing your mod with it's defaults, it's been perfectly fine
I just use the mods folder, the resource.cfg, and then the package folder, all in the documents location.
To sum: you need to put encourage just using resource.cfg from the wiki modthesims use, make the mods folder, put it there, make a package folder. All your features work for me.