Back in the day, I basically always built. My play style was to play one random family as they made progressively more money. They always moved into a ridiculous mansion that I built myself. I remember that their houses were so big that it would take forever to walk to the commute from wherever they were in the house. "Sorry boss, it takes me 45 minutes to walk from one end of my house to the other."
In this version, I switched my style to playing a lot of different households of different types. They all end up in different lots and locations. I haven't emphasized building but I'm willing to be less rusty as I have time. I tried entering this challenge. I can see if I have a photo of my result. I think I'm pretty creative aside from roofing and getting bored while decorating. I pushed through for the challenge.
Anyway, I like thinking outside of the box. Sometimes I renovate, sometimes I download and lately, I'm willing to build a bit more when I have the available lots for it. It's all a matter of what I have time for. I'm not as familiar with some of the advanced tools.
Also, my prior play style explains why I didn't get that attached to the pre-mades. I was always playing with my own sims on lots that I built. In this version, I've used more pre-existing lots and made more of a complex rotation.