Although before this I did try renaming the EA Games folder and that didn't work, in case someone is having the same problem in the future.
What didn't work? The "renaming generates new EA Games folder" or the replacing the G002 folder? Just being curious.
Renaming the EA games folder in My Documents didn't generate the G002 folder, because that is in the program files one. Renaming the EA Games folder in Program files confuses the shortcut.
I replaced the G002 folder with my backup, put the empty G002 package in and it didn't solve the problem anyway. There also doesn't appear to be a .reia file at all for G002. I assume this is because it is an invisible hood. I think I got too confused with it anyway so I just gave up and just have to live with the ramaswamis. It doesn't seem to have any effect on the neighborhoods anyway, apart from normal bugs I just haven't got used to yet because I only had Uni, up until about 3 months ago when I got them all except Pets and BV.