Seriously wondering - how do you play this game in 2025?

Unless you took advantage of old money glitches or have played the game for 10 years, how are you supposed to play this game without spending money in the year 2025?

Whenever I have tried to start a new Sims Freeplay game in the past 3 or so years, it becomes almost impossible to continue playing past a certain point.

To be specific, the prices of all in-game items/properties become so unreasonable at a certain level that it would take forver for a player to actually obtain them! As you continue having your sims do tasks to try to obtain the currency you need, you continue leveling up and therefore everything becomes more expensive.

Yes, I realize that what I am describing is 'the point' - that's how EA makes money off of this game. However, I feel as though the game used to be easier in that it was much easier to play without spending real money.

Any thoughts on this? Am I wrong?