The Sims 4 is not quite a fan favorite. It is disappointing that they may be working on it for another 5-10 years
There’s no way what they had in store for Sims 5 would have pleased the fans disappointed by Sims 4.
Sims 4 was already a last minute attempt to correct course of something those fans never asked for. An always online multiplayer skinner box, probably barely simulating anything at all. They only shifted when the terrible SimCity 2013 crashed and burned.
It was too little, too late, Sims 4 at release ended up the most incomplete release a Sims game ever had and even after many updates is still the most boring experience you could have with the series. Even the bugs are not the entertaining kind.
Guaranteed, Sims 5 was going to try more of what Sims 4 was supposed to be.
I really doubt Sims 5 would have been what Sims 4 tried. I’m reasonably confident it would have been a single player first game, and with that in mind would bring back the open world and that stuff. Would it have been good? Who knows. I doubt it’d be the dumb lobby thing that The Sims 4 was.