Sims 4 randomly crashes and freezes

Hi there!

For the past few days I have been troubleshooting my Sims 4, as it randomly crashes or freezes.

Crash = it'll quit the game and I get the apple pop up "the sims 4 quit unexpectedly"
Freeze = the sims are stuck in the same position, can't click on anything but I do hear the time change when I press the time buttons (1,2,3). It's not fully frozen as the sims still look around and breathe but can't do anything.

The crashes and freezes happen at random times. I have let the time run to wait if it still happens.

This is what I tried:

1. vanilla game
2. putting mods/CC back folder by folder
3. creating a new save with same family & home (saved those in the gallery)
4. created new save with new sim.
5. BetterExceptions says there are no conflicting mods and only flags animation errors.
6. deleting cache & localthumbnailcache file.

Not in a particular order. None of the above have worked.

What else can I do? I would love to figure this out since the new expansion pack is being released tomorrow and I can't wait to play it! I play with a legacy family so my priority is to keep them.

Is this a patch related issue? (It's also been raining inside and my retail stores are not functioning anymore.)

System: Macbook M1 Max 16"
OS: 15.3.1
Mods/cc: yes - but game also crashes without mods/cc