Personally, I believe Sims 2 hit the sweet spot with releases. 2 EPs every 6 months with a few SPs in between. Granted, they didn't patch in free content or carry forward EP features to the base game (like the ability to change your toddler's appearance in the mirror), but at least the content was substantial AND stable (mostly). And we got occasional free stuff on the exchange. And also that horridly ugly Hilary Duff sim with TS2 Pets that didn't look much like her if you took off her makeup.
As much as I'd love more content like Sims 3, it suffered in terms of stability. Even with an i7, GTX 10 series GPU, and NRaas, it still crashes occasionally for me.
