I'm not very experienced with modding so I might be making a rookie mistake here. I'm trying to get a no-glow or faint-glow mod to work by merging the magicitem folder with folders downloaded from nexusmods. The mods seem to be highly endorsed and work for most people but after altering or replacing the magicitem folder the changes never take effect. Even deleting the original folder has no effect on the games glow effects.
Is the gog version protected in some way? Or am I just an idiot that doesn't get it?

Well, I figured it out. I had to use an attribute changer program to alter the bsa file dates. The year should be 2002, no other parts of the dates need to be changed. This works for the no-glow mod as well as the subtle glow mod on the nexus. So if you just really hate the magic glow effect on enchanted items those mods will work with the gog version.

Yeah, that's the reason the mod management tools for Elder Scrolls games were invented. Before Skyrim (at some update point), ES games loaded container files in order of their timestamps...