Any good ways to make the closed world system feel less suffocating?

I absolutely love Sims 2 but unfortunately the closed world system made me feel very trapped, most people here may be used to the closed world system but I mostly play Open World games and it made my experience playing Sims 2 feel worse than I really wanted it to.

Any good mods or lots I can use to make it feel less suffocating? Would Uberhoods make everything feel better?