Newby ferment mistake

Morning. I did a ferment in brine from an online recipe (about 3 percent salt plus a small amount of vinegar) of some mixed hot peppers harvested this season. Been going two weeks or so now at room temp. Was about to call it done and make some hot sauce and loosk like in the craziness of the harvest I forgot to put water in the airlock like a genius. Extremely cloudy brew, almost milky white if you stir it but no mold or other colors and know clear white years unless its the cloud. Slight unpleasant under when first opening but peppers taste ok. Colors of the red peppers still bright, greens are muted but no slime on either. It is just that first whiff that seemed off but I am new to this.
Two questions.
1 Is that serious cloudiness a potential need to throw my babies out?
2 If not, can you make a femented hot sauce and add unfermented ingredients in the blending or does that defeat the whole business.
Usually I do my own research but life is upside down and I can't keep up this month.

Your white cloudy substance may be kahm yeast, which is harmless but is not tasty. If your vegetable were submerged under the brine, the airlock is a secondary safety measure (but things to tend to float which opens a pathway for bacteria to colonize your entire batch). Weird smells i have noticed in batches of ferments that I have ended up pitching are "acetone" and "super cheesy" and colors I look out for are pink/purple, black, and green/blue (although that can be a good one in cheesemaking).

I also know that a lot of the barrel pickles I see in my area have a cloudy look to the brine they hang about it.

With brined ferments, it is often a matter of degrees. Degrees of safety measures (insuring a desired and safe result), degrees of tolerance for "unusual" flavors, degrees of time fermenting (shorter time allowing for fewer incursions by "baddies") etc. Even with beer or wine, there are undesired (by most, look up brettanomyces/the "barnyard funk" spoilage yeast) inoculations that, when controlled and moderated, can make for more complex final brews. But I think it is good to start from a baseline of understanding what you are aiming for before going rogue when getting into fermenting.

When it comes to blending fermented with unfermented, I think it depends on how you plan to store it. If you keep it cool enough to prevent further fermentation, it should not be an issue. You are however adding a new food source for the bacteria in your ferment so if it's at their preferred temp, they will get active and ferment the rest of the vegetables, which can lead to overflowing, exploding jars, etc etc. Keeping it cold would slow that process down dramatically.

Without pictures, it's hard to know if what you call extremely cloudy is the same as what I would. The microbes involved poop and die and leave a light beige sludge that sinks, but when stirred up stays cloudy for a while. It's just an entirely normal part of lactofermentation. We also don't know what you find unpleasant. Do you generally like fermented vegetables? They all have a funk that I like but not everyone does.

Sounds like your ferment is fine. It's just taking a while to finish up. Mine are always really cloudy then they settle down. Kahm yeast tends to form on the surface of the liquid and I just skim it off if it appears. I've found that this tends to happen with a slow ferment.

The initial funky whiff when opening a jar is pretty typical in my experience. My whiffiest was a combo of radish and onion. Wowza it was sulfurous. The veg was excellent though. As you get more experience you'll be able to tell if it's gone bad since it's not very subtle - mushy veg, slimy, ropy liquid, colorful mold spots on top of the liquid...yep I've had all those happen and it's pretty clear that I did something wrong.

I've mixed fresh vegetables in a ferment and they will continue to ferment in the fridge. Just be sure to add salt along with the new vegetable or you risk diluting the original ferment, making it more susceptible to contaminants.

Good luck with fermentation. It's a lot of fun once you get more comfortable with the process. I highly recommend Sandor Katz's Wild Fermentation book.