I’ve never really played a Simself and I’ve never made one personally.
I like to come up with a career I haven’t tried or an aspiration I want to do or maybe the idea that I’d like to play some archetype (the geeky scientist, the bad/tough girl criminal, a cowboy type... ...)
I randomise the relevant gender Sim til I find one I like the look of and adjust. Usually hair and outfit rather than body or facial structure. Clothing can take ages.
Traits to suit the character envisaged.
I have a bunch of characters saved in my library/gallery. I’m even reusing some of my favourites.
Seems like create a story hasn’t been around that long, but I think I could get into trying to manipulate the system to give me something close to what I want. I did do an alien that way once...