To me, gameplay in the Sims series is about adapting to the unexpected. In The Sims 4, however, the only time that I was actually thrown for a loop was as a result of a really weird...bug. Otherwise, there was never a reason for me to stop, to reassess, to take a detour, or to change the course of my Sims' lives altogether. The surprise factor has even been removed from in-game death.
TS4 is so aggressively benign that the Sims' personalities have been scrubbed clean and there is no conflict between opposing personality types -- which was one of my favorite types of challenges within the game.
Unfortunately, the series has evolved from a game into something that is more of a digital dollhouse. Unfortunately, it took a long time for me to realize that it is that way by design and that it is never going to change.