The first thing that popped up for me was "No more travel times". In Sims 3 I found it very stifling that I had to either get punished by a longer absence of my sim from home due to travcel time from and to work, or had to move their house right next to the their workplace (and after they had children the school would magically relocate to whatever streeet they lived in). Detentions were the worst, when one child or teen got it, the schoolbus would wait for that one and hold their siblings hostage inside. Even worse was fact that despite my sims were getting slapped with travel penalties left and right, the police was always by "coincidence" just in the right place to arrest a teen for existing.
With the semi-open neighborhood I can enjoy collecting, following my sims when they walk the dog etc., but not at the price of messing up my town.
