As someone that *hates* story progression from 3 and doesn't have a single reason to like neighborhood stories (and I don't, it does nothing for me), no. Really, no.
I guess the pop ups could be annoying, but so long as there are not actually autonomous changes, I do not care. Plus we've been told toggles (and deeper features with them) are coming later.
So really don't think it is a misstep or a step back because it is giving a lot of people what they wanted. Something akin to some of the really popular mods, and something that had been done in the past (story progression). I'm looking forward to the toggles, too, and am terrified of some of the bugs that will happen now that there is code for these autonomous changes, but I do agree in principal a pop up is a fairly opt in opt out way to start this.
