I personally prefer MM to Alpha. I got into Sims a couple years ago when it went on an Xmas sale and I looked at a lot of photos to decide what I liked better. I picked Sims 4 over Sims 3 because I liked the artstyle better. I think that the cartoony characteristics of MM content make the game feel more lively and I think with some good CC skinblends and some CC makeup you can make some pretty nice looking characters. I definitely use a Maxis Match default skin replacement though because I think the shading on the default EA skins look kind of funky.