All This Beautiful Landscaping...

I don't think we will be able to swim in any body of water in the future either.. they might make some accessible, but even then I think it would be less problematic if they just added areas where it can be done. It doesn't bother me personally. I do want my sims to eventually swim in a beach area for sure though. This thread has become about open vs closed (loading in) areas and I'm not sure that was the OP's intent? I could talk a lot about how it's really easy on most non residential lots to just build on the fly and bring in desired game play or the crazy amount of portable stuff that is now in game... without going into managed worlds at all and therefore not disrupting your game play much at all. The topic however is basically what can you do with the view. What good is it? My answer is enjoy it, the feeling it gives, the art style and the stability it offers. If you can't do that on some level then this very likely isn't the game for you. It's not like it's likely to change markedly in the future in this iteration.