How to turn off time-limited events

I stopped playing so that I could opt out of the Reaper thing and was just considering maybe going back - and now I see there is ANOTHER unavoidable event.

Please, for the love of crackers, make these optional.  Please understand the way your players actually play and not the way you're trying to force them to engage.  Most of the player base is just trying to play their own little stories out and not conform to some external To Do List.  I'm fine having the OPTION of the challenges or scenarios or what have you, but sometimes I just want to do the story I'm creating.

I still want to use the Gallery, so don't point me at the "fix" above.  We should not have to choose between entirely cutting ourselves off from the Sims 4 community and being forced into an invasive experience in a game that succeeded once upon a time because it let people imagine and play however they wished.

FIX THIS, EA, or I'm done with Sims 4, sad as it makes me.

I've been playing a lot of Sims 3 since the Reaper thing started and gosh, it's been a relief.