The Sims shouldn't be seen as a realistic game though. I know it's a life simulation game, but some of the things that happen in the series just wouldn't ever happen in real life lol.

I have to say though, the graphicsdo look amazing. When I first saw The Sims 3 I thought how amazing it looked, but this looks even better. Like you said, does look a lot more cartoony than The Sims 3, but they have put a lot of detail into the textures and some of the models.

They said its more cartoony so then loading time is faster and frame rate higher. Trust me, many people still has old PC and having low frame rate with Sims 3. Now Sims 4 however makes it more beautiful(even when its cartoony) and now having fast loading time and high frame rate.
In short... more people can play this game now.

Sims 4 has a better lightning system. It's not blur, simply a blooming kind of effect.

The kind of people who are stupid enough to pay hundreds of dollars in microtransactions generally don't own PC's which can run anything more demanding than the Sims 3. Thus, the Sims 4 looks exactly the same because it is Sims 3.5 built to prop up EA's financial expectations.
While some studios try really hard to push games as an art-form, studios like EA seem intent on using games as a way to exploit psychological flaws in customers in order to extract more money.
This game represents everything that's wrong with the industry in 2014.