If I take those out, which I thought of doing will it super-populate with pets too? Cause I really don't want 50 strays or some such. Also, since I have a clean template, will the game actually generate more townies/downtownies if I take them out and load? (Cause then I'll just stick em back in so they will never reload for any reason unless the game has to have em)
As Gwill says, if you have nostrayrespawn, that should stop the repopulation with pets.
A clean template is just that, a template, and sims then get added to the template in your game folders, which is then no longer clean, but just has in it the sims that you want to be there. The template in your program folders will remain unchanged, so if you ever want to remove the present PV and start again, you would then get a new PV exactly as you had before you started to play.
The game should generate some new townies - if you want slightly more acceptable faces than the defaults, you could put a set of face replacements in first - and if you go into Downtown, it would also generate some downtownies. To generate some dormies, you would need to load up Uni after having taken out the nodormieregeneration hack.
You just need to enter a lot, (I think, though maybe it will happen in just Neighbourhood View) then wait, and a townie will probably do a walkby as the game generates them. If you have the Visitor Controller or Inge's teleporter plus, you can either ban them with the VC or just clear them off with the teleporter, and the game will then generate another, which will then walkby. and so on......
When you think you have enough townies etc., then you just replace the hacks to stop any more from being formed.