What's With The Short Lifespans?

I simply play on Long and I use MCCC, but have never fooled around with the settings for how long each age level is going to be. Although I was a Huge fan of Epic in Sims3. Also, whenever I send a group of YAs off to university, I set the game to aging Off to preserve the number of days left in YA. Also to ensure the older Sims in my game don't die off before the YAs can get married and start families of their own. So, you're not trapped in a very short life for your Sims. I suspect there's more to your angst than what you've admitted. It's no sin to prefer one Sims game over another. You don't owe the other players anything. We all play the iteration of the game we love and we play the game the way it makes us happy. No excuses needed.

Happy Simming, no matter which iteration you choose!