I guess I tend to think of it as casual chatting in line at the grocery store (no names exchanged and you’ll either never see each other again or not remember each other if you do) or actually introducing yourselves and planning to keep in touch or at least recognize each other around town to speak again.
The automation only ever does the former. While I wouldn’t want it to put every single passing townie into the relationship panel, I can see how it might make sense that if the conversation lasts longer than x amount of time, or happens with an invited guest at a party hosted at your home lot, you might want it to progress to the latter.
Maybe the game would act as if they were introduced, meaning you'd have all the interaction options with them if they speak with your sim for a certain amount of time, but they wouldn't be added into your relationship panel? Idk how that would work cuz you might want to add some sims, though.
