I don't remember because it's been so looongg... but was the Colour wheel available at first release with TS2 and TS3??
Perhaps TS2&TS3 started out with basic colours then evolved to the Colour Wheel later on (Which I'm surely hoping is what's happening with TS4)
I liked your comment @CaseyleeOx about The Sims being a place to explore unreal things and kind of take your imagination past all possible limits and escaping from the real world! That's what I'm all about as well and I feel very constricted with the limited colour choice! If I wanted normalcy, I'd play Club Penguin :'D