At first I'll hope that my mod will be really usefull for you.
Well,about this thread I can say that I'm glad to read about really important aspects of game.
About step 2 I think that something must be changed in Accept/Rejects section.Seem to me that good balance of accepts and
rejects can bring some changes in sims relations.Accepts and rejects must be more personality/character based.
Obviously very important aspect is mood.I saw in my game as sim in desperation mood started doind things that never did before.
So,I think about it and I'll try to find mood-interactions links.
I should like to make something simple at first with BCON tunings,and if it not help to change something,than to try doing
something with BHAV and STR values.But in this case as I said above may be sure conflicts with other mods.
So,main problem is time problem,because all these"researches"take too many time and I'm not so awesome person in modding
as other moddingmonsters.And many things I still make ntuitive.
But can notice that TS2 is very stabile and tolerant to many stupid things that peoples can do with it.So,show must go on...
P.S. By the way I'm almost sure that you can try this
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=233274 alternative version*