I will most certainly get downvoted for this, but I don't like the politics of the game now. It seems very clear that Maxis is targetting a very specific demographic that I am not a part of.
To put it as neutral and tactful as I can, their target demographic is the 16-25 West liberal/progressive female market. It's very apparent with the Eco pack, but also all the collaborative packs and various sundry other things. While Sims has always been fairly progressive, their messaging these days feels like pandering.
Taking the Eco Pack for example, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be self-sufficient or mindful of the environment. But time was, a pack that let you directly affect the environment would have options to swing it both ways. Look at Into The Future in Sims 3. You could have a Utopian Future, with sunshine, rainbows and happiness. Or you could have an Apocalyptic future, with meteors, dirt, and disease everywhere. It was awesome. It felt like a way of letting the player choose which future they wanted without judgement.
With the Eco Pack, all you can do is clean up one neighborhood. And everywhere else, you are subject to obnoxious neighborhood action plans. Hey you have a very futuristic tech-based family? Sorry, the HOA sent an eco inspector by and they are going to jack up your bills. Also we are shutting your power and water off. For the environment.
I get that water shut off days are not uncommon in California, where there are frequent droughts or wildfires, but where I live, we don't need to do that. And I certainly shouldn't have my water shut off in Brindleton Bay. The Sims 4 has a very clear message they want to present, and it isn't optional.
Smaller, more ridiculous things are there too. Did you ever notice that they changed the trait "Insane" to "Unstable" ? They did that after the fact, when one single person wrote a blog about how offensive the trait being called Insane was.
Likewise, they don't have robbers in Sims 4, because they were concerned it might make some players feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Yet they had no problem with Strangerville.
And that ties into my biggest gripe with Sims 4. It's too utopian. It's no longer a (crazy) life sim. It's a Utopia Sim. Nothing bad (besides the aforementioned dreaded HOA Eco Policies) ever happens in the Sims 4. Everyone is happy, gets along, loves everyone and no one ever fails. You don't have a bad day at school or work. You don't meet any jerk sims. Everyone can be made your best friend regardless of who they are (they are no one, because traits don't mean anything) and all that matters is mood, which can be easily swayed with a couple paintings or a light. The only way for things to go poorly for a sim is if you make it go poorly.
Compared to Sims 3, where having a really good day for a Sim took effort, it took doing things they liked and dealing with bad luck, or getting a stroke of good luck. In Bridgeport, I once had a sim get mugged on the subway, stalked by a vampire at a club, get food poisoning from a food truck, and then go home and pee himself because his roommate broke the toilet. He was so out of sorts, when he went to work the next day and a random event popped up, he botched it and got demoted. It was devastating. And it was awesome. When he eventually got back on top, it felt earned.
Nothing in Sims 4 is earned, because there is no risk, because that might upset the player. The Sims 4 isn't meant to be a life sim anymore, and I am not it's target demographic. That's fine, thats why I play Sims 3.
(Also, do not take this post as a criticism of women in gaming, or games targetted at women. That is a demographic that has been criminally underserved in gaming for decades, and my wife and I look forward to introducing our daughter to gaming when she is old enough. I just feel that the Sims franchise has shifted heavily towards that demographic.)