I wasn't really around much during the Sims 3 so obviously I didn't complain online, but I certainly would've done had I been. I played the Sims 3 for a bit after it came out but I didn't really like it that much and I went back to the Sims 2 until the Sims 4 came out (and I have now gone back to 2 again). I do remember reading about the store at the time and thinking it was very overpriced and a cash grab, but because I wasn't playing it, it wasn't my problem and I had my degree to do (all of my time and energy was totally consumed by it). But like I said, if I had been playing I would've complained and not bought anything. I didn't really like the idea of the store when we had it for the Sims 2, but I don't remember there ever being that much on it. I certainly didn't buy anything though as I didn't agree with it. That said these items very much felt like extras on top of what we already got in packs, which was massive. I didn't feel they'd been deliberately excluded from packs, the same which I feel can't be said for Sims 4 SPs and especially this one.
I'm not opposed to the idea of a Stuff Pack as long as they're done the right way. I liked the Sims 2 Stuff Packs because they followed a decorative theme and just gave you more building/decorative options that fitted a theme you liked (eg Teen stuff with gothic/sporty/girly style furniture), that did not include new gameplay, or they centred around adding new, mostly decorative, options to existing gameplay (eg H&M stuff meant you could turn your existing clothes shop into a H&M style clothes shop). And they usually followed more than one decorative theme and gave you tons of objects/wallpaper/floors etc. The difference is they weren't trying to add new gameplay, like the Sims 4 Stuff Packs. The gameplay was provided by the EPs. With the Sims 4, they seem to be using SPs to make up gameplay shortfall, adding new gameplay that isn't already present in EPs. To me it just doesn't work, partly because they clearly can't flesh out the gameplay to an acceptable standard and provide lots of objects that fit one or two themes within the scope of a SP (to me there are not enough objects), and it seems that many of the gameplay options in SPs were cut from EPs, with the my first pet one being the most blatantly obvious one yet. Stuff Packs should've stayed being decorative, because that is really what they were intended to be and it fit in well with the EPs. And because they weren't based around new gameplay, you didn't feel like you were missing out if you didn't buy one. I really don't agree with them adding new gameplay through SPs.
