Also you make a great point about working with the modders. Soooo much of the issues they can't seem to wrap their brains around have been solved by modders. I'm willing to bet that being given credit/acknowledgement/ shout out and maybe a store credit worth the equivalent of an EP or something would be enough to get many modders on board, especially since they're doing it for free (or whatever income is generated by website traffic or patreon in some cases) anyway.
Instead of ignoring the fact that they exist, why not ask them for their flipping help?! I get that they're terrified they might have to *gasp* pay them, but if EA just makes it clear up front that it's not a paying gig, they'll only get the people who are okay with that trying to get involved. There are enough simmers (side note, my autocorrect tried to make simmers into winners and that made me smile) that just love the game and would help just for the sake of making the game better that they would still get plenty of assistance, and with tools like zoom and Google workplace or whatever it's called that there's really no excuse not to try.
[Edited to fix some grammar whoopsies]
