As others have said, the issue is most likely that you have broken or outdated mods in your game.
Remember that a mod not having an update available doesn’t mean it’s not outdated or broken, only that the creator hasn’t updated it yet. Every single update has a chance of breaking certain mods, and that is not anything the developers can control without having to stop developing the game. That is the very nature of mods for games.
Anytime your game is having odd issues that go away after removing mods, the problem is almost always that a mod (or multiple) is broken, outdated, and/or interfering with something in the game code following an update. You must identify the mod(s) causing the issue and remove them until they are updated by the creator. There is no way around this.
Furthermore, because the game is in early access, mod creations will be even more unstable because the game code and foundation itself are currently unfinished. That being said, with any moddable game, there are risks to using mods, whether it’s clothing or gameplay mods. The more mods you have, the more maintenance and responsibility it will take on your part, and the more likely something will need fixing or removal.
As for the freezing on the main menu, if it happens after visiting the in-game mod launcher, this issue is being investigated again since the last fix for it didn’t fix it for everyone: October Known Issues - Other Issues