Why are the files from LEX packed exe files?

[Prml]

I've recently picked up playing sc4 again after not playing for several years. And I've been trying to install the CAM as suggested on this site    https://simtarkus.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/building-up-a-plugins-folder-of-camelots-the-quick-and-legitimate-way. I love that you have a download tracker, that feature is great! But what I don't understand is why are the files (the dependancies) in .exe format? Aren't they just .dat files? It's extremely tedious to manually go through all of the .exe files. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a smarter way?
(I'm sorry if this post is in the wrong forum, I looked around and thought this was the place to post)

[Andreas]

The BSC and other producers settled on self-extracting installers because there were many support questions about properly installing custom downloads. This is especially true for mods, since the loading order can be critical with some of them, hence it's a lot easier to just click through the installer, which makes sure everything ends up at the right place.

I agree that it can be a bit tedious if you want to install a lot of downloads at once, but even a simple ZIP file needs to be extracted, you might need to create a (sub)folder, and eventually open the readme file, so all in all, the number of clicks is about the same. You only need to do it once, though, if you ever need to re-install your computer, just make a backup of your entire plugins folder, and copy it back later.

[Kitsune]

The exe's are a mix of models and lots. I've managed to extract the models from the exe using 7zip, however it seems the lots are encrypted.

[Prml]

Thank you for replying.

@Andreas, I guess that makes sense. I'll make sure to backup my stuff once I get everything sorted.