Thanks so much for those answers @simlotte ! Really appreciate them.
Yes, the camera not panning is a pain! I was grateful how on the Sims 3 it would alert you - otherwise you could miss a dearly beloved sim dying and they're just gone! I would personally say they still need some updates around this haha - I do legacy games too with long, long family trees and appreciated the phonecalls on the Sims 3... The ones that say "so and so is getting pretty old and won't live forever..." etc. Then you know if a friend is about to die haha
Thanks so much again :)