I think if they add too many details to one activity like you describe then there is the risk that it becomes its own game. I miss the freedom we had with TS2 EPs, they introduced gameplay that applied to everything else in game and it was easy to set up and manage. The ticket machine could be used to charge for everything you imagined, you could sell anything, and it was easy to set up venues to your liking without the constraints of lot types. I like the snowy part of the EP, I think it's a lot more fledged out than the Japanese part of the game which is mostly aesthetics but it has little gameplay.
