Which packs do you recommend for me?

For apartments? It depends on what type of environment you are wanting - obviously, City Living is more of a City type of gameplay. Eco Living is great if you want to have more influence over the neighborhood since you can vote on various things to change how the neighborhood looks and if you're interested in saving the environment, etc. by installing solar and/or wind power, etc. As for For Rent? Well, so far (it's buggy AF and IDK if the latest update has changed anything, someone else will have to confirm) but it's more if you're interested in being a "landlord" or generational gameplay and keeping your family close. 

DIY - I definitely recommend Bust the Dust, while having the dust can be annoying, it definitely fits with the DIY lifestyle since part of it is cleaning up any mess you make. Home Chef Hustle & Crystal Creations are also good if you like to do Rags to Riches type of game play. 

Vampire pack and life and death expansion that might both help increase the stakes a bit. 

Life and death even has a trait 'chased by death' that can make things more lethal for those sims. Also adds the murder by crows death and sims can work as undertakers, or go with the active reaper career. 

Get to Work is also good for some active careers, Get famous can also be great for that with the acting career and fame comes with both perks and downsides. Like developing flaws which can add a bit more challenge. 

Personally I also quite like Journey to Batuu, but I guess I really like seeing my sims do lightsaber fights. The missions can get pretty repetitive and sadly it's mainly just an advertisement for the star wars theme park that exists in real life. It's holding it back. 

I would 100% recommend city living. It’s probably my favorite pack. I couldn’t imagine my game without it. It has apartments. While apartments are also available with eco living. The apartments in city living offer additional gameplay. You’ll have moments where neighbors might show up, where people will complain, where your neighbors will wake you up and annoy you. There is also different lot challenges exclusive to the pack and to some of the apartments.

I love the karaoke bar lot. Festivals are a lot of fun, though these can sometimes get repetitive you have the option to attend them or not. I also appreciate the art center lot. A museum with more to do. 

San Myshuno is unlike any worlds in the game currently. While we have a couple city like  neighborhoods, none of them give the feeling of living in a city. Even though you get the same amount of Sims as other worlds, it feels more densely populated. Also, including apartments, you have 30 lots available. 

You should probably avoid For Rent. City Living is good and so is Eco Lifestyle.

For fun spelunking, looting and thrill I'd recommend the Jungle Adventure pack.

Also, take a look at this page about users' perceptions for each pack, ordered by most liked. They show separate ratings for e.g. objects and gameplay - which seems to be your main concern.

I recommend City Living for the High Penthouse Towers.  As for Dangerously Fun, I recommend Werewolves, Jungle Adventure & Island Living.  (FYI: Werewolves Pack Power will give your sim immortality & yes you can turn them back to human with that ablility.  Also, Jungle Adventure has some explosive traps & Island Living has a Volcano that shoots out explosive rocks) 🔥

I've been in this position before but the way I get through it is to choose a few packs you want most and research the hell put of them. See what new careers, traits, skills you would get the pack as a builder I look for a kitchen set or any other decorations that I might use obsessively. A world is great like San Myshuno gave me so much fun building or living in apartments. Speaking of city living, I love all the new lot traits and challenges in that pack which can really switch up gameplay but my one critique with the pack is the bb and cas assets. 

I recommend building a bundle an when there's a sale, you can get an ep, gp and a sp for less than the price of a full price ep.

Thanks for the input and descriptions of features of the different packs. This helps a lot.

Just for the apartment life city living is the way to go, since it comes with all the annoyances of living in an apartment complex and the perks of living in a city.

Eco Lifestyle apartments dont have anything special, but the pack itself can bring some interesting challenges and happenings. It brings you NAPs (neighborhood action plans) that any sim can vote on (unless changed in pack settings), meaning NPC sims will vote and NAPs will take action in ALL worlds and can vary for each neighborhood. This can be alot of fun and definately less monotone, but it can also be a pain, so beware.

TulipRogueI was looking at the packs you own and had a few thoughts...

• Clubs. Since you own Get Together, I have friends who swear by and heavily use clubs. I recently bred and raised a couple of sets of 'SuperSims', and decided to have them hit the vast majority of milestones and goals as I raised them, so I experimented with clubs. I did find that there were tons of social aspects and tasks in the game that you could use clubs for with child, teen and adult Sims. If you use them heavily and creatively, clubs in Sims 4 really can be a powerful tool.
• Vintage Glamour Stuff Pack.  Since the original price of this is $9.99, I consider this one of the biggest bargains I made on packs, as I absolutely love having the option to add a butlers to a lot where I have a household with the extra money to pay them. All they need is an assigned bed. I don't worry about a handyman, maid or gardener when I have them, and they can also lend a certain amount of help with tending babies and toddlers. The butlers can be frustrating if you want to rely heavily on them, but I think they are extremely handy as a backup for household matters. I also love the globe bar and some of the CAS items that come with the pack.
• Get to Work. Personally, though it can be annoying in some aspects, I like the ability to own a retail shop, and some of the other careers that come with it may be of interest. Also, since you enjoy a little chaos, it also introduces alien abductions.
• With 'Get to Work' I've played with many sims owning a retail shop and 'living above' it through a somewhat wonky workaround, so I'm really looking forward to the upcoming Businesses and Hobbies pack. Over the couple of weeks I've been revamping a couple of lots to add a home business on the lot they live on and test it out /tweak it when the pack releases. To me, I love developing excellent gardeners and cooks (and having backyard chickens - and golden chickens - via the Country Living pack), and I have fun running an open store on the lot while at the same time running the household and involving them in a peripheral way in the business - all at once. 
• I asked a few friends to help me with some info/tips on what they do to liven up their games, and I added that to this page if you want a few more ideas. 
• Personally, I don't like playing with vampires, but many people do. I must admit that I have entertained myself beating the tar out of a few that invaded my sim's home and wouldn't leave... And I have occasionally added a cowplant (I was amused recently to see mine would dance to music). However, I ban vampires now from the lot at the front door, and inevitably my cowplant eats a sim I don't want them to and I end up banning them to inventory. 😅 I believe I still have my cowplant in the gallery. I think it's called 'unwanted cowplant'. 😂