[Kasztanek]

Trzeba przyznać, iż ta teoria z Reddita na temat The Sims 4 ma sens.
The sims 4 wygląda jak gra online, która na szybko przerobiono na offline.

Warning: Pure speculation below
They HAD the resources to add pools, toddlers, story progression, create-a-style, etc BUT most of them were used to create an an ONLINE The Sims 4.
They put most of their eggs in one online basket, so to speak, and when the new Simcity failed because of its online play, all of the online features that The Sims 4 team were working on got cut. All they were left with were a newly improved CAS, a new house building system and emotions. Loading screens when entering different areas (I think that's what it's called, correct me if I'm wrong) is not a feature but an adaptation/limitation to having an online Sims game. Even the art style was created to improve game performance while players were online with each other. And as for no Create-a-Style? If you've played MMORPGs, you should be familiar with the limited and non-customizable armor and clothing. Same reason here. The game has no story progression because there was no need to create it due to the players themselves being each others' townies. EVERYTHING was designed to increase performance whilst playing the game online with other people.
I further speculate that the original proposal for The Sims 4 had a similar format to the new Simcity. The game would be played on EA's servers where you would be put into a small town of maybe 10-20 other players. EA found out the hard way that this would not work and scrapped that idea and told its developers to revamp the game and were given the same deadline of September 2014. The developers scavenged what they could from the online Sims 4 game and tried to finish making this game in only about a year.
Due to the time limitation, this game will lack many features (as we've been told already), have many bugs and will undoubtedly disappoint its loyal fans.
But how can The Sims 4 save itself? The simple answer is to delay the game a year, or two or three but its really not that simple. The company's flagship product/money milker series can't be delayed because its shareholders will be more than unhappy with it. All in all though, did EA learn nothing from The Sims Online?
If you look at this simsvip page in the light of my post above, you'll clearly see that the Sims 4 team are converting their original online game into a single-player game. "Public spaces?" Sounds like the "main town" where everyone in an MMORPG gathers. Also, 30 second loading screen times? Do you realize how long that actually is when you're playing a game?