A suggestion to mitigate against the "pop up hell" issues driven by events

[GAGA Extrem]

Well, you could play my PDM modmod - that takes care of a lot of spammy events by:
(1) Adding a toggle option to turn all province improvement events (Tractors, Electricity) into country-wide effects that have 3 levels (early, improved, advanced).
(2) Increasing the MTTH of several events (Workplace, Suffrage Movement).
(3) Allowing you to toggle off the state election events and instead only get country wide ones.
(4) Tweaking several flavor events by increasing the scope and effect and in return increasing the MTTH (MORALE CRUSADERS!!111)

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Does PDM change game play or econ stuff much? I'm still learning the game and want to stick to vanilla game play until I have a better grasp on mechanics and whatnot.

It does, but in general for the better. There are a lot more factory types, but the basic economic concept is still the same. I guess the biggest changes are around elections, reforms, the colony system and some extra semi-historical events.
Personally I can't play without PDM anymore, but I can understant that you might first want to play a few vanilla games.