Happy to read we are on the same page, Nick!
I also shortened the openings book I use for engines not featuring their own. Also because recent top engines using best tech (such as NNUE) can find and play better moves than those stored since long in a book - it is up to them to find their way out of the shortened opening, and that's interesting to watch.
I as well don't use any endgame tablebases. A chess engine must have the knowledge to sort it out by itself, otherwise I am not interested in watching.
Grüße,
Eric