there are no new whims in island living and

I really do miss the wants and wishes from TS2 and TS3 as well. I always used them to mostly decide what the sim would be doing and it helped so much with not playing every sim the same way. They felt way more unique to me that way. I think the TS2 sims with Freetime were my favourite ones. They could have a combination of two different aspirations, a one true hobby and an inherited personality. They felt so different from one another, especially if you let their wants and fears guide your game play. I miss inherited personalities so much.
I also liked how the wishes tree changed in TS3 depending on how you played the sim. That gave them some sort of memory and a history.

I do use the whims to guide my gameplay in TS4 as well and they are a bit different depending on the traits, but some are just very generic. Childish sims should want to play in the rain, but it just says "from rain outside" and I think every sim can get them. Although I am not completely sure. A snobbish sim, who hates the rain, definitely shouldn't get that whim, though. And I do miss the fear system. My sim always end up with a ton of points in TS3 and TS4, because I play a lot according to their wishes and whims and a way to lose them would be great.