Yes, you can't simply turn off a mod which spawned items into your world. Simply because the items are there, and when you start the game it will look for them but the mod's gone, so yeah.. I advise you to keep the mod but to delete the distribution file so there won't spawn any more of them. About the cheating, I've got no idea tbh. You could maybe try it without compatibility mode (on a new save?) to see if it's because of that?