I'm happy to see you around the forums again @permanentrose!
I'm curious about others thoughts on Sims lore, because I don't pay attention to it much at all. I try to ignore or delete all pre-made Sims in my game. I don't want them in my stories, but sometimes, I don't remove them because I forgot or I misidentified them as townies and it's too late to change things.
I incorporate more subtle bits of lore if I notice it such as object descriptions and general Sims history, but I dislike Sims with set backstories in my own game even though I don't mind them at all in others'.