I reinstalled Sims 2 yesterday and I've been playing it a bit. It's so nostalgic! I still think it had the best music. It's definitely more hardcore - it's pretty easy to get your Sims all twisted up where they have multiple needs in the red and not enough time to fill them all. At first, meals only fill up your hunger halfway, you have a comfort bar to worry about, and it's all very twiddly trying to juggle everything.
But I loved how easy it was to get reward points... just go on a date! Make a custom lot that has everything for their needs (including coffee) and send them out on a date, they can party all night and come home with platinum happiness and a bucket full of reward points, and all their needs maxed, yet no time has passed. It's great!
I do like they brought back elements of the Sims 2 dating system. I thought it was a lot of fun getting all those custom date-related wants letting you rake in the points. I also like how they expanded that to "get to work". Although I wish you'd get points for all those tasks in Sims 4, it's still cool to have a bar to fill for doing different things.