I have Base/Hinterlands in my home. I have been dissatisfied with Base/Hinterlands with no other expansions. It brings too many Big Money powerhouses to the game without shoring up Base dominion's lack of engine viability much. Embassy, Jack of all Trades, Trader, Fool's Gold, Silk Road, Tunnel, Farmland, Margrave, IGG, all lean a bit strongly towards Big Money, and IGG, Embassy, JoaT, and Fool's Gold are total powerhouses. I'd argue that Haggler is also a very strong card that leans towards Big Money, because Province->Gold works better than Province->5$ engine component that will miss your Village due to Province clog. The Village availability is fine, with Village, Crossroads, Festival, Border Village, and Inn available. The issue is that the two sets can support engines but don't supply a point to having an engine. Highway does, and supported Highway boards are interesting. But that's it. Stables is a stronger Lab, yeah, and you can build an engine with Stables, but many of those end up kinda simple because of the way Stables works. You buy lots of Silvers to ensure Stableses don't fizzle and trash lightly because Copper is good and you run all your Stables into a strong terminal every turn because it's sorta like a Hunting Party that only knows how to skip coppers when you think about it.
I bought the set because I love Silk Roads, and Silk Road is great. I would prefer better engine/BM balance to the cool alt-VP card though, Gardens comes with the base set anyway.