I don't know how helpful I can actually be, I've never seen any of the issues you're describing, except the building tool one. My game is running fine and I'm also using Windows 11. I'll do my best though. I need more information.
When you say the neighborhoods don't load, do you mean in map mode or when you are in a lot looking at the neighborhood around you?
Are you saying that in the lots and houses bin, everything is missing except the apartments? Or do mean that you are unable to go into build mode on any lot except apartments?
There should be a few Sims available in the family bin as well as premade Sim families living in the neighborhoods. Have you googled to see who should be there and noticed that any are missing?
I don't know what you've done to try to get the custom content box to pop up. Did you go into the settings and select Display Custom Content Dialog at Startup? And do you already have CC installed; I don't think it will display until CC is installed, but I'm not sure. Is CC showing in your game even without the dialog at startup? The dialog isn't actually necessary, and I often disable it.
I've seen other people say that they can't bring up the cheat box either, but supposedly this was addressed in one of the patches. I only encountered the problem a couple times before the patch and restarting my game made it work again. Some people have had luck using windows key+ctrl + shift+ c. I saw one post that said ctrl+shift+b worked for them, no idea why that would be. Some people have different hotkeys set on their keyboards that interfered and they had to change them. Beyond that, I'm not sure what to suggest here.
I'm sorry about the toddler, but I have to ask, were you trying to make them interact with a bed? Like a child's bed? In Sims 2 toddlers don't have beds of their own and have to be put in the baby crib by an adult or teen. If you put down a pet bed, you can direct them to sleep on that though. Also, toddlers can't die in Sims 2. If their motives fall too low, a social worker will come and take them away from you. If for some reason the toddler did in fact die, that could be why the game crashed. But I've never seen the game kill a child or toddler without the player cheating. It's more likely the toddler passed out from sleep deprivation.
How long had you been playing before the crash? There are lots of things that can cause crashing, but for me, it tends to happen if I play more than a couple hours without a break. If I play for an hour, then close the game and restart after a bit, it's usually fine. Sims 2 has always had random crashes too though, and often I don't know why. I just make sure I save very frequently. I probably save more than I need to really.
I had the wall building tool get stuck in my game a few times many years ago. I think long ago enough that it might have been when I was still playing on disks. What made it go away for me was putting the lots into the lots and houses bin, then placing them again.
