It's a mad run around for those of us that just wanted them turned off for all neighbourhoods. I am so glad I didn't use my four year old save to test my new pack or I would be so angry now. I honestly wish I hadn't updated my game and probably won't after this has been sorted for a very long time. I always have the game progression thing turned off so why the devs think I or others like me would want it back on for this I have no idea. I think after 20 years + I'm done with this 🙄
There's a global disable switch in options, but other than that all settings are per-save.
I have a custom "default settings and holidays" template save that I use for things like this. I've set up all my holidays (I have a lot), put all my favorite Sims from saves past into starter homes as townies, and put my default aging/neighborhood stories type settings in there. I've also placed restaurants/cat cafes/added pools and basketball courts to some of the base game gyms/added toddler stuff to parks/put down some toddler potties, etc. Any time I want to start a new save, I open that one and choose "save as" so all my preferred stuff will already be there, intact.
Perhaps you could do this with Neighborhood Story settings? Especially if you spent a lot of time on them!
