A part of a review at Big Download:
Some disappointments include the lack of any sort of built-in model editor (which would have been easy, given the Spore tools) or item creator, the lack of interaction inside community lot buildings, and the limited number of items for some of the more defining tasks, such as playing music. Want to buy a piano instead of a guitar? Too bad! Guitar only. The lack of an item creator is the biggest letdown, as EA showed with Spore that they had the ability to create an editor for players to mold unique, gameplay-affecting objects that still retained game balance. The in-game style customization alleviates this heavy burden upon the heart, but does not dissipate it complete.
I can agree that there are some objects “missing” from the game, the best example it the jacuzzi, which is like a trademark for The Sims series.
But I don’t agree when The Sims 3 is compared to Spore. They’re so different from each other, besides being from the same company. Although I can see they’re point of view, which is at a larger scale, but still they’re different titles.