I would be bored with most of my families if they all were waiting for my directions. So I play with auto on, but pause the game often to keep track. This works even for 8 sims households, parts of the day I don't even pause them, depending on if they all are home or not. I admit I occasionally cheat their needs, say when entering a new house during the night finding that they are all hungry and cooking/grilling, or if I'm arranging something special to happen and my plans get ruined because of very full bladder etc. It's find taking care of their bladder needs, but I rarely let it stop me from enjoying the more interesting assets of this game :) .
Yeah - free will is off for actively played sim.