Oh yeah, EA sure plays it safe, I guess that's why they support their loot-- "surprise mechanics".

The Sims 4 was scrapped five years into production and the team still had to release the game by the deadline. Also, I believe it was also mentioned that toddlers weren't included in the base game because the team was using a new engine and weren't familiar with designing toddlers.

The Sims 4 isn't a bad game but compared to it's predecessors, it's just lacking depth, not content. That's the major issue, the Sims 4 is pretty but doesn't have much of a personality.

Remember this is the game that made people excited about pools and ghosts; something that have been in every base game.