Ottemis is right.... you can open a lot of tpf files at the same time.
- On Texmod press to open a tpf file
- Go to your folder with the files
- Drag your mouse over like 30 or 40 files (select like 30 or 40 files)
- Press open
- wait some seconds...
- Done... loaded like 40 TPF files in a single open process. 
Its on first page too... 
Tip: you can select several tpf files dragging the mouse over them, I think the limit is 40. I add 63 MODs in two loads.
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Oh, that might explain why it wasn't loading any of them then! I had selected all 53 or so mods at once lol.
Unfortunately, I forgot that my SSD (256 GB) didn't have a whole lot of space left, and was searching for a more permanent method of actually replacing the textures with ME3 Explorer. As I was setting it up for the first time, unpacking the DLCs, I ran out of space, and I couldn't figure out what files exactly were created, so I just wiped out my entire ME3 install. 
Once it's reinstalled and I've gotten the Cinematic Filter enabled again, I'll try TexModding it again.
Thanks for the help!
EDIT: So, what does it mean when the game loads at just barely slower than normal speeds with TexMod? Clearly it didn't work, since I have textures loaded for Anderson and the Alliance uniforms, yet the beginning cutscenes and first level, everything looks the same texture-wise.