Big surprise update!
After checking the patch and reporting here, I got irritated and did more digging and...
My game is working! 🙂
(Hopefully, it stays that way after a few hours of play. I will need to test this more.)
I moved my DLC files when reinstalling the game, but I did not try to delete the DLC from my PC since there were so many, so I simply moved them back while testing.
I noticed in the sims folder that I had a weird file name with a $ sign. Turns out that my Strangeville file had turned into a strange (ha) file name; $RSXJIXI. I deleted it and reinstalled it, and my game so far has been working or at least making better progress. My sim is able to wash her hands, fish, and sleep; what she couldn't do before without just standing there frozen.
Check your program files!
I'm guessing, at least in my situation that one of my DLCs got corrupted, but the game still kinda recognized it, so it wasn't saying it was missing or giving me an error. - This would also make sense on why recreating the issue might be difficult.
I'll keep you guys updated if the issue returns.
P.S. I do recall having a mild hiccup when first updating to the patch that caused all this. I had to reinstall the patch, and maybe something glitched during the process? Repairing/reinstalling the base game alone didn't fix this issue. For those who took out laundry day, possible your file name turned into gibberish too?