Townies with lives!

In Sims 3 there was a toggle for story progression, as well as for the individual occults spawning. Sometimes I want to play a game with a single family and story progression, other times a rotational game without. I want to see the ability to have story progression if i want it in my game but have a toggle to shut it off if I don't. I don't use mods but have been thinking about MCCC because I do like rotational play but feel that Sims 4 does very little to allow it to work without mods. But playing a single family without the story progression is also frustrating. I have to play rotationally to keep the neighbors up to speed. I think it is one reason why, although I do enjoy the gameplay in sims 4, I end up stopping after awhile as i realize I am not having as much fun as I did when I started the gameplay. I don't have a lot of time to play so playing rotationally is a bit overwhelming, although I always enjoyed it in Sims 2 and 3. I love playing my Sims games and really want to get into my Sims 4 more, but I want more control over my game without having to use mods.