I prefer the washed out wasteland in both wastelands. Many things are shared yes, I chose to keep the rock skirts from F3 pack as they work in both wastelands for instance, where as the NV one looks out of place badly in DC. That was pretty much the only really badly clashing texture.
You may prefer the roads from DC pack too, some people do. He also has some higher res rock only packs for DC which you can also use if you choose.
this can be activated using a mod manager, but no .esp or .esm shows up in my plugin list, is this normal?
The file you can download from this thread is not a mod, it is an archive containing scripts to automate the creation of the texture pack and the file also contain the same instructions on how to create the pack as the first post. 
They will work for any current and future version of TTW, NMC's packs will not change.
If you dislike the texture in the center medians, delete /textures/landscape/scrubdirtstripnv01.dds
It would be copyright infringement, not stealing. While both are against the law, they are not remotely the same thing. Too many people have bought into the MPAA/RIAA propaganda about copyright infringement being stealing. They love to redefine terms to make things seem worse... ask anyone who's been a victim of REAL piracy if it's anything like having someone share a copy of your song online.
