Can we once and for all retire the "I want my teen Sims to look 12 years old" thing?

Yeah, honestly, I agree with you. I'd find it a bit odd if teens were much shorter than adults. I think of my teen sims as being 16-17 and most kids that age are not shorter than me. I think the real solution here would be to give sims aged teen or older different height options to choose from, but I doubt that will happen in TS4's time.