For me Sims 3 was very good for the time period it came out but there were an few things that was not in Sims 3 favor. one, it was not properly tweaked by EA/Maxis as Sims 4 has the same problem. EA/Maxis was slow on the draw on fixing the bugs that existed in Sims 3 and again the same with Sims 4. The way Sims 4 began was no accident as it was built on an failed project meaning it had to stay within the limitations the engine was built for, instead of building an engine from scratch. Sims 4 has not followed an normal evolution like most games experience. So for me while Sims 3 was not perfect and by the way My sims never looked like potatoes, it had better gameplay than Sims 4, Sims 4 packs for me is gimped as not to shake feathers and I wish I could get the gameplay where I can play for hours and when I get out I want to go back in. Sims 4 is not totally bad but it is not GOTY material for it lacks most features that really allowed me to get creative. The creation of new worlds was free in Sims 3 was free and I did not have to wait for EA/Maxis to give me one which now does cost money and even that is far and in between for that is now their new way of getting money.
Another thing Sims 4 returned to an old feature that was gone in Sims 3 multiple loading screens even though for some there was an long or short loading screen when Sims 3 loaded up at the start of the game and nearly none afterwards but in Sims 4 there are multiple loading screens which lessens the immersion effect for me and one of the reasons some features may not work in Sims 4. I can go on and bring out all of Sims 4 disadvantages but I will leave it at that. Sims 4 should have been an extension of Sims 1 through 3 and it is not for old features and new features are mixed and sadly not in Sim 4 and when they try to it is an gimped form. However the best version for me was Sims 2 even with it's Twilight Zone effect which truly allowed me to tell stories.