@Eloka
I agree with some things you pointed out in the first part (restaurant/business system, animations, etc). The Sims 3 definitely simplified a lot of things and Store sets weren't as good as fully fledged EP features in 2. I'm still upset we never got a proper retail system (though retail in 4 isn't much better than the Savvy Seller collection).
However, I strongly disagree about personalities. Sims in 3 have more unique personalities, as traits give them more well definied behaviors (there are only 10 possible behaviors in 2 + combos, only determined by personality points below 3 and above 7). Wishes in 3 are better than wants. They are over 3000 unique wishes in 3 vs less than 500 in 2. Moodlets also give more personality to Sims, as they add temporary behaviors or complement actions happening on screen (as I explained before).
Chemistry is also much better in 3. In 2 chemistry/attraction only took three things into account: zodiac signs, aspiration and turn ons/offs. In 3, there are over a dozen of factors taken into account for attraction: skills (and bonus per level), careers (and career level), traits, occult types, celebrity status per level, zodiac signs, life time rewards, and EVEN some moodlets like: "Fresh Clothing, Minty Breath, Nice Nails, Smooth Skin, Squeaky Clean, Very Fresh Clothing, Eye Candy, Stylin', Stylin' Permanent, Suntanned." Whereas other moodlets actually decrease the level of attraction: "Garlic Breath, Grungy, Singed, Singed Electricity, Smelly, Sunburnt, Spray Tan Bad, Spray Tan Discolored, Spray Tan Uneven." There's no comparison. The Sims 2's chemistry system was extremely basic. *
The only two things TS2 did better when it comes to simology are: interests and memories. Memories in particular I believe were very poorly implemented in 3, though TS2's memory system was far from perfect (like having a memory for burning food or seeing roaches, super mundane things). I wish TS3 had actually improved on TS2's memory system like they did with chemistry.
You can say whatever you want about personalities, but the code doesn't lie. TS3's traits, moodlets, wishers and attraction system are factually superior than TS2 personality points, wants and chemistry.
* ETA: You can retune TS3 attraction system to do exactly what you want. You don't want zodiac signs to be taken into account, just set the kMatchingSignsBonus value to 0 in the ITUN file for attraction. TS2's chemistry system is VERY difficult to change and customize (partially hard coded). In fact, no one has been able to ADD new turn ons/off, only replace existing ones.
