I imagine there would have been even more complaints if players were forced to play the game with nothing but an elderly couple in the house, with no choice but to wait for them to die of old age at 80-100 years old.

What I wish is that the "next generation" button became available once all the kids went to college, not when a parent died. Then the elders could have been allowed to live much longer, because players would no longer be forced to keep playing unless they wanted to. Both the players who want longer lives for their peeps and the players who get bored once all the kids are gone would have probably been happy with this arrangement.