Does Seasons mark the beginning of story progression?

I want story progression for non-played households :) If NPCs don't have kids, the world pretty much just grows old and dies, then randomly gets replaced by a new family that will remain static until they die. This is especially annoying when my sims have kids and there aren't many other sims of their age for them to grow up with.

I'd prefer my own households to remain untouched, but that's where toggles come in handy.