Legacy Edition remains unplayable

Could the issue be Windows 7? I know you said you meet the system requirements, but we're up to Windows 11 and the game may have been optimized for it. I played Ultimate Collection on Windows 7 and 10, but had to do a lot of tweaks to the game files to get it running. I updated to 11 before buying Legacy, so I don't have experience with it on a different os.

I have Windows 11. IRunning the Legacy release in Windows 7 Compatibility Mode (even though you're running Windows 10 or 11) is common advice on how to fix crashes in Legacy when you already meet system requirements, basically the "have you tried turning it off and on again" of this kind of issue. 

Ah I see. Is your game crashing every time you play? Can you always play at least an hour? I ask because Sims 2 has had a weird crashing issue since it came out on PC, where it will crash after about an hour. If you are lucky, sometimes two. If you are really lucky, it won't happen that play session. But it happens. It's done it on every machine and every iteration of the game I've had in the last 21 years (aside from the console version). It seems to be something baked into the game that they've never fixed.

If it's not that, and it's crashing an abnormal amount, I don't have a recommendation at the moment. But, if it's the "usual" crashing, I can tell you what I do. I save a lot. When I've played for about an hour (sometimes more if I'm feeling lucky), I quit the game. Delete all the cache files. Every so often I'll also delete the neighborhood manager and all the thumbnail files. Then start the game up again if I'm going to play more. Annoying yes, but better than an unexpected crash.