Yes, I plan to update ComSenMod for Alpha 16. At this point I'm hoping to merge my changes into the A16 files once experimental is released. I anticipate the files affected won't change too much between A16 experimental and A16.0. It's helpful to take an 'all or nothing' approach to the files, either making a lot of changes to an .xml or none.
I have about 40 more edits I've done locally. Once I get through my to-do list, I'll test it for balance, and I'll see how close we are to A16 experimental then.
One thing on my list is to look at the quantities of items traders sell. My goal is not to make the game
easier, however I am interested in adjustments so you don't find nearly worthless quantities of things. For instance, if hypothetically you could buy concrete mix, but only enough to make 2 blocks, it's almost not worth having it in the store. I haven't found the prices to be unfair, but maybe I just like treasure hunting more than other people.
I'll look at the frequency of traders in RWG since you asked.
Calipers are easier to acquire in ComSenMod, indirectly. If you find the tool & die set, you can use it to forge a set of calipers. This avoids a weird situation where you can make rockets, but not bullets. I've discovered the recipe is broken in the current release, but I've fixed it locally.
In ComSenMod, books are found in backpacks, because that makes sense. So finding your minibike book and so on would be a bit easier.
It's not immediately apparent where bear spawning is controlled. Which file are you changing for that? In general, you should install ComSenMod first and then make any further changes, since you'll be changing less than ComSenMod does.
hwell: 
