Can we like find a middle ground people? Can we just accept that The Sims 4 neither horrible nor perfect. Based on your personal opinion you can always find ways the game is the best by picking out the positive or that it's the worst by picking out the negative.
We need to get over our own opinions and try to understand what The Sims 4 does well and what it is lacking. This installment like all the previous Sims games does some things great and some other thing terribly. The problem with this game though is that a lot of things that a big amount of people thought were not "well-done" are features that are very important in a life-simulator (ex. lifestages, personalities, unpredictability etc.) So if you are asking yourself why the game is getting so harshly criticised even though you might love it this might be the reason.
The fanbase that existed before the sims 4 was a different one. Fans of the game became fans because they found what they were looking for in previous games and The Sims 4 was the first installment take that away and ditch things that were the reason why some people became fans in the first place. That meant that a part of the fanbase was not satisfied with those drastic changes and some decided to leave. However the Sims 4 managed to even out the numbers by getting new people into the community who did not really notice a change because this was their first game.
In short, with drastic changes in the game come drastic changes in the fanbase. People who liked the game before the changes leave and people who like the game after the changes join in.
However, no matter how much the game has changed it still has the "life-simulator" identity so even if you love or hate the game you have to be able to differentiate if the game is good/bad for you and if it is a bad/good "life-simulator" in general and compared to previous life-simulators by The Sims team.
For better understanding an example from another game:
"Years ago I played a game that was marketed as a RPG/Action game. Personally I loved the game so much but it was heavily criticized by the fanbase. It was my first game in that franchise, I hadn't played any previous ones but I loved the story and the characters and didn't understand the hate.
After thinking a bit I realized even though I loved the story and the characters the game was not a very good Action RPG and that was the problem. I didn't care about the Action RPG elements so I never realized how lacking they were. Do I still love the game to death? Sure. Would I recommend it to anyone who likes either Action or RPG games? Hell no.
