Never heard of Sims 1 or 2 when my daughter & I discovered Sims 3.
Here's my Pros & Cons for Sims 3 & Sims 4:
SIMS 3
Pros: Color Wheel, Textures, Hairstreaks, Body Hair, Shorter Teens, Playable Babies, Fairies, Werewolves, Genies, Open Worlds, Cars, Motorcycles, Time Machines, Spiral Stairs, Heartshape Beds, Underground Beautiful Hot Tubs, Variety of Personalities, Better Relationship Interactions, Better & Bigger Worlds, Holiday Seasons Festivals, More Pets, Horses, All-In-One Bathrooms & Cooler Parties.
Cons: Game kept freezing up, had to uninstall games to install in the order of release dates & game couldn't hold much in the PC.
SIMS 4
Pros: Aliens, Mermaids, Spellcasters & Vampires so far, Zigzag Stairs, Traits for everything, Windenburg, Brindleton Bay, Strangerville, Brooms, Bicycles, Better Graphics, Murphy's Bed is back, & Game doesn't freeze up.
Cons: Missing Color Wheel, Textures, Open Worlds, No Drivable Cars, No Fairies, No Genies, No Werewolves, No Motorcycles, No Horses or other pets, No Spiral Stairs, No Heartshape Beds, No All-In-One Bathrooms, No Seasons Festivals, No Time Machines, Lack of Personalities, Lack of Bigger Worlds, Lack of Better Beautiful Hot Tubs, Lack of Relationship Interactions, No Playable Babies.
That's all I can remember.