Where I was joking was when I started saying things like give my world's sims an icebox (to be counted as a fridge), a usable surface of some kind, an old beat up mattress (to be counted as a single/double bed), maybe some land to plant on, and they're good even if it's all outside. Once you start providing sims with luxuries like shelter, running water, radios, tvs, cooking appliances, bookshelves, chess tables, and art work, they begin to put on airs and graces, thinking they are better than everyone else, start getting other unnecessary ideas about how to improve themselves and those around them, and they begin to develop this crazy notion of "leisure time." This is where society begins to get into trouble, generally. That and when we start actually cooking our food.
But more seriously, inactives, whether already existing residents in town or newly arriving immigrants, will never move onto a lot of their own accord that lacks a fridge or enough suitable sleeping slots. We can force them into such lots or take such amenities away, but then they fail the required housing inspections. What happens next depends on what is being used for story progression. NRaas SP will allow us to make the inspections Not Rigorous and we can use town, caste, or household options to lock them down and prevent them from moving to lots that better suit their perceived needs if they can afford to and if any are available. To be honest, I've never played with inactive sims that lack fridges and beds on residential lots, but I've put inactives on community lots such as a park, beach, or playground as their only homes (by way of MC) where they did not have these things, locked them down using SP so they cannot "move out," and they have been fine as long as they have a place to shelter from bad weather. None of these sims have ever had babies or toddlers to take care of, though.
Not sure what happens under EA standard. If it cannot find anywhere "better' for these sims to live it might start removing them from the game which is what I think was the concern expressed here.
"Scifi" just came to my mind when I was looking through Lucky Palms' pictures - all that neon blinking lights and casino stuff, dunno, too... modern? Also desert isn't my dessert (heh), either. Flashy big city atmosphere is not the kind of "rich and wealth" I'm looking for here, more like some old fashioned mansions with beautiful parks etc. More like 19th-20th century stuff. Or even medieval, perhaps. 