I had the same issue, but for a different reason. I suspect my game has culled Roberto Crinkletop - I did not add him to a household or kill him - and no mysterious rancher is showing up. It’s been more than four in-game weeks. A mysterious rancher doesn’t show up to buy nectar, or with a welcome wagon, and there’s no mysterious rancher npc listed on the info board. Roberto Crinkletop also does not show up in the relationship panel of sims like the Grove family, who start the game with a relationship with him.
The save that this happened in had over 500 sims in “my households” so it’s culling sims almost as soon as I enter live mode. For any other household, I can prevent this by moving them into “my households,” but I can’t do that with Roberto Crinkletop because he doesn’t show up in household management.
