Absolutely needs to be optional. I for one play my sims to ESCAPE real life and my restrictions - I darn sure don't care to chain my sim inside her house 24/7 because real life has my real self practical trapped like that. Maybe some people want to recreate themselves - I have no issues with that - but i don't, nor do I want to see others doing that to me. I was not born this way - but illness related in my case. So I well know both sides of the coin.
Sometimes we all need an real escape and adventure outside of our real lives - maybe you have to be one of us to realize that for those of us it is a long time, ongoing and only getting worse existance - well sometimes I just need it to play myself as I used to be. I would be furious if it was mandatory - as I would rather not have serious illnesses, disabilities, etc in MY game. I would not object to maybe an expansion for people who wanted it though.
I am pretty sure EA still requires testers to be 18 plus by the way - not teens. They are a public company - so I believe it is required - as even game changers now have to be 18 plus.
