My opinion is little bit harsh; it just feels like The Sims Team wanted to use the popularity of The Sims 2 Wants and fears. And just like with anything else, the feature was done to silent people and make us happy for a little bit.
People have been asking for a proper whims overhaul; an overhaul that would give us more meaningful personalized whims. This wasn't achieved with wants. They are more restricted, we have less of them. And they are still useless for you if your gameplay isn't driven by wants system. I will say that we need more wants, wants specific for packs and more personalized wants that will make sims unique. Wants based on traits, based on aspirations, on skills, on relationships. As for making wants meaningful; we need aspiration meter like its in TS2. That was an important part of the system. If we aren't getting meter, than we just need better rewards in reward store. Bring back rewards from TS2 and TS3.
And fears? They are definitely unique. But I truly miss mundane fears from TS2 that would make this system in TS4 better. I'm not againts long term fears like fear of swimming or fear of fire, but make short term fears that will correspond to current situation of Sims; fear of having baby, fear of marrying, fear of relative dying, etc... And make fear meaningful as well, which would require the aspiration meter again. If its not added, then fears should have bigger consequences than one buff.