I thought it was a major thing I needed, when TS4 was released without it, but now we don't have it, I don't really miss it so much. I spent ages furnishing homes and dressing sims with the color wheel and the pattern option in TS3, and really, it was more like work and I am kind of glad I don't have to do this anymore. But I understand everyone who wants the option and needs it for gameplay, so I would be happy for you if you got it at last.
Major things I need and really miss: various group activities (I miss lots of them and the lack of them is what makes TS4 boring at times for me because there isn't much to do once you've majored every career etc - Sims need to interact more in groups, not just talk, what about group sports like soccer with more than 2 sims?), more active careers, more stuff to do for toddlers, kids and teens (especially group acitivites again, I miss the "play on playground" option we had in TS3) and babies that are real sims (I wish we will get babies like in TS Mobile at some point)