I don't use mods or CC...too many bad experiences over the last 20 years with mods/CC breaking the game and causing the loss of entire worlds when you have to repair/re-install the game. I really wish the devs would cook some more customization options into the gameplay section for TS4. That way I know if something goes wrong - it's not because I have 15 mods running and 3000 pieces of CC mucking everything up.
If you haven't tried this yet, you can also make your own townies. Plop a household of sims you want to be not-in-world npcs into a lot, save, go to manage households, & immediately evict 'em; they'll be categorized as 'not in the world'. Un-heart them, & you've got a new npc-townie household. Rinse and repeat. Save when done.
I used to download 8-sim households of townies that various simmers made for the purpose. However, the game never assigned those sims jobs as bartenders, etc., so I shifted to one-sim households only. Can't remember if that worked or not! Now I don't bother with the townies at all; just clear out (delete) the oldest ones out periodically.
However, this might suit your needs! Hope so, anyway.
