There’s The Sims obviously but that formula is 20+ years old and kind of dated. There are others that focus on farming or specific careers but they’re not really general life sims. Imagine a really in depth, triple-A buget life sim where you live in a open world type city, can socialize, have a job, hobbies, explore, just do whatever. I guess like GTA but without the crime element and more immersive and customizable. Would there be an audience for this?
I’d guess that there’s a lot of complexity involved in constructing deep mechanics with emergent gameplay properties, that at the same time don’t bog down the player by bombarding them with things to micromanage.