I can't use gallery homes, community lots yes, but never houses. I play like a doll's house, practically never panning around, camera centered on the lot and everything has to be visible/clickable without me having to constantly adjust the view. This stems from years of having weak computers and playing ts2/ts3 with lag, so moving the camera a lot was always making my fps drop.
Now I don't need to anymore but I kept the habit and I like seeing where all my sims are quickly. Gallery houses are all well designed and cluttered, I just hate having to rotate the view everytime I need to click on the fridge or send my sims to bed (I make exceptions for patio/backyards)! Also it always feels more at home when you design and build yourself, I always start rags to riches style, empty lot no money and go from there. By the time the house is complete it has history and memories, I enjoy my gameplay more that way.