I don't see pets as essential as all, many people don't have them. I'd prefer stuff more common to be in like cars, university and seasons perhaps.
But they can't put everything in at once due to limited resources. They obviously can do more than sims 4 which is very bare bones, but not everything so choices do have to be made.
I think sims 5 on release should feel like it's a base game + a big expansion. And that expansion should be stuff that would greatly benefit from interacting with all future expansions. Like university, to properly interact with all future careers added through expansions and maybe have expansions add a magic school or other alternatives.
Cars can go with that too since it's not that big a feature and a very common thing of life, bicycles and motorcycles can be included in it as well.
Seasons is an option too, but it would be unrealistic to expect them to add both seasons and university in the base game. They'd only do that if they actually got a legit competitor pushing them to put more effort in to not lose their playerbase to the competition.
What the sims series might need most above all, may be serious competition.
