[FA_Bong]

Rock, the first and foremost reason for the UI is to have Everyone on the same page, to have all the same mods and to insure that no-one can join a server that is CRT=2 with unacceptable mods (those that would give them invincible planes or Uber weapons, in other words no cheating). If you have already downloaded some of the mods that is fine, you can save your mods files before install and then replace them after, so long as they contain no class files you would still be crt=2 compliant, if you have maps that aren't in the 1.2 you can put them back in you'll just have to add them to the all.ini and you're good to go. For instance; I have a folder called National Markings which replaced the default USAAF star with the correct one and the NOMAPFRAME mod which is self explanatory I added those in after the UI1.2 install and I have a couple maps to add back in as well as the new F-86 and Mig and it's no big deal I'm still able to get into a crt=2 server.
With any other modded game, say BF2 for instance you would not be able to join with a version different from the one the server is running, PunkBuster would Kick you. So think of it as our way to insure that you have the same experience as everyone else and no punks can bust your fun, the version of any Mods included in this UI is tested to make sure they have no exceptions that will cause you problems. This UI and the one before it are fundamental to getting everyone up to date, and subsequent updates will not likely cover any Mods already included.