The return of Story Progression, or some version thereof, was highly requested by many players from the beginning. Regardless, I was always against it, out of fear that it might mess up the sim world I've spent years carefully creating. So when the Neighbourhood Stories feature was introduced, I did have my doubts.
After playing with it for a while, though, I have to say I find it rather unintrusive and easy to manage. Neighbours will only call after you've socialised with them, and even then, only once until you meet with them again. If you don't like the life changes they're proposing, you can just say no, and in my experience, they will always heed your advice. One sim even turned down his "dream job" after I told him to, because... I gave you the job you already have because that is your dream job, who are you to disagree with my decisions, you puny little pixel person??
However, if they're planning on extending this feature to make it more complex and less avoidable in the future, I hope an OFF button will eventually be introduced. As it is now, I don't have a problem with it.
