It turns out that when you use Edit Town you have to move a sim into a house with all the necessities. Have you ever noticed that the only way you can move a sim into an empty lot is if you use the game setup when you start a new town with a new sim? It's because it will automatically make your new empty lot sim the active household, so you can add the necessities. However, you can't do this through Edit Town because the game doesn't know if you're going to immediately make it the active household. And if you don't make them the active household, then they'll theoretically die from hunger with no fridge on the empty lot.
Not sure if that makes sense to anyone, but maybe someone else will get it.