I would use LOOT to decide the load order as well, but also tried manually setting Immersive Creatures load just above the bashed patch.
I've looked over the installation instructions they have here the only two mods I saw with compatibility issues was Dual Sheath Redux and Enhanced Blood, but both of those had compatibility patches. So far I haven't encountered any issues or bugs except when trying to add Skyrim Immersive Creatures.
I use Mod Organizer and it doesn't identify it conflicting with any existing mods. So I've installed Step 2.2.9 Extended following the instructions completely (as far as I know) once I verified that it was running normally without error I've gone ahead and added some of my favorite non-step mods.