To the OP, you make a lot of good points, but I would be careful with some of the assumptions you are making about other players when it comes to their gameplay preferences and their engagement habits with other players in the community, when you make your argument about the players it takes away from the core issue of the Sims 4. The players are not the core issue as to why the game is how it is, yes, many are very vocal, opinionated and don't know boundaries when engaging with discussions, but ultimately it's EA and the development team who are responsible here.
As for the balancing topic, I agree, when you combine many of the features that offer perks, buffs and bonuses to sims, they often stack up and become completely overpowered and unbalanced compared to the rest of the game. There are many ways to make a sims life easier in the Sims 4, with that said I would also argue that there are many ways to make a sims life more difficult as well. Ultimately it's a player driven experience, if the player wants a more easy going experience they have options for that, but if the player desires more of a challenge there are also options for that.
I often see people saying that the Sims 4 is too easy, and I guess I somewhat agree, but the Sims 4 has a variety of features that can replicate "difficulty settings", things like lot traits, NAP's, Eco Footprint, and now things like Tiny Homes and Haunted Houses, can all contribute to a more challenging experience if that's what the player desires. As for making money, I am aware of the easy methods of obtaining money, so I simply avoid them. Just because a game play option is available to me doesn't mean I am obligated to use it or engage with it, sometimes certain gameplay features just don't make sense in the scenarios I like to play.
But this is all based on my experience with the Sims 4, there's plenty of room for improvement of course, but with what's already available I find that there are many ways to manipulate my personal game play experience, to make it more challenging, easy, random, spontaneous, etc. it's all a matter of me the player utilizing what's available instead of waiting around for things to happen on their own. Sims 4's original slogan was 'You Rule,' and it seems they kept true to that phrase to some degree.
