i agree with you.
hmm, it seems the new devs want to innovate on the game but they gotta deliver past games missing features first. perhaps by sims 5 they will plan to add some of those things you mentioned in base game and start doing brand new dlc. (in the case ts5 doesn't end up being second life or third life or whatever) however i doubt ea will allow maxis to put inside the base game those pack features that sell the most in the game. anyways people is still willing to pay for those things so it's up to people really. ea won't decide on its own if there is still business.
but for the sake of the franchise, it's about time that things like seasons (which was already meant to be in sims 2 base game but was not possible due to tech back then) and pets alongside other features glorified in packs make it into the base game. that's what the base game is for, to assure a base and then expand it on packs if necessary. but delivering important features for the game on packs? that's like selling a chair with two legs and selling the other two legs apart.
