I love most of the Maxis Playable Characters from Pleasantview and Strangetown...Personally if your going to lot-bin include every sim that knows each other on one lot...If you dont you get tons of garbage character files...
So far the only downside I see is that all the townies seem to be from Pleasantview. I'm not sure of if Strangetown townies get recreated during the process.
No they wont unless you stick them on a lot...lot-bin...and then use Inges teleporter bush to make them townies again...
It's the putting occupied lots in the lot bin that worries me. Doesn't that cause duplication of the character files of every sim they know outside their own household? Even in a freshly installed, unplayed Strangetown there are relationships between the households - so (if I were silly/brave enough to try this) I'd not only have the (real) Johnny Smith in the Smith household, I'd also have a 2nd Johnny Smith character file from Ophelia's relationships, a 3rd Johnny Smith character file from the Grunt boys, etc. When you consider how many characters are already known to other families in unplayed versions of Strangetown and Veronaville, you're starting to look at a heck of a lot of character files.
That is why you would need to put all characters on one lot with Inges teleporter bush. For Strangetown I put everyone on one lot plus Crystal Vu, Meredith the Bartender, and Abjiheet Cho. Veronaville Characters didnt know any NPC's. Pleasntview you would have to add Kaylynn Langerak and Gordon King. I also added the graves to the sims inventories. I dont know if it matters or not