So, at some point in the past few months, my Goth house and every copy of the Charming house in all hoods (all unmodified except for one where Claire had moved in Johnny and Tucker) started crashing. The Goth house may have been imported over with a copy of itself but it was still an unmodified all-EP version of the house. The Charming house has never been imported over, especially not in every hood.

I was determined to figure out why, so I copied the folder for safekeeping and then tried removing all Downloads (including Maxis ones installed with the game) and the lots loaded with a missing objects prompt. Here's what else I tried:

• Leaving RugOMatic and T-mog folders out because maybe something I did caused this. No change.
• Importing a base game copy of the Goths over the all-EP version of the house. No change.
• Removing all non-Maxis downloads (so, every standalone file in the folder and also all folders obviously by creators in the community), even though the lots at issue are (mostly) unmodified Maxis fresh install lots. No change.
• Leaving the hacks out and ALSO removing all Maxis folders that start with N or later in the alphabet. Lots load with missing object errors.
• Adding the N or later back in and removing A-M. Lots go back to crashing.
• Thinking the lots are crashing due to a corrupted file, I add the Maxis folders from the backup copy I took of my install prior to reinstalling in January. They still crash. I think to myself that maybe they were bad there, too. Somehow. (Spoiler for a later bullet: They aren't.)
• Remember I have a Macrium backup of an old Windows 7 computer. Add the Maxis objects from that backup. Crash still happens.
• Remember I have a Macrium backup of an old Windows XP drive! Add the Maxis objects from that backup. Entire game crashes on splash but I suspect that's because the XP drive was put through the wringer SO SO badly. It's surprising the computer it was on back then was still loading the drive from a different working partition (the aforementioned Windows 7 in fact!) for the purpose of accessing files in Explorer. It was that bad.
• Put the safekeeping copy of Downloads back in order to fix the splash issue. Same lot crash problem I started with. Start writing this post.
• Remember I can run the exe in the pre-reinstall backup (even though it has a bad pedportal (my fault, ID conflict) that tricked me into thinking the game needed to be reinstalled) and take a look at that version of the game. Lots in that version load fine.
• Last ditch, I take the Goth house, which is working in that version, and put it directly in my houses folder. Crashes in my actual current install.
• LAST LAST ditch after calling someone to unfruitfully ask a technical question, I take the exe from my old install and put it in my current install. Still have house crash problem.

...What's left? Known working copies of objects and houses aren't working. Am I going to need to reinstall AGAIN? Is it a drive problem and therefore a BAD idea to reinstall?

Holy moly, that sounds horribly frustrating!

I have no idea what's wrong, but I wanted to give you some sympathy.

Do you want me to upload my copy of the Goths' lot or anything?

I could give it a shot (so feel free to if you want), but at this point I feel as if it's very unlikely it might work. I think I've tried four copies of the Goths at this point (the original one that was present in the install, one definitely-good import of the house awhile back when I first noticed this issue (would have been the one still in-game yesterday), one exported from the Edith basegame build (this was the fastest way for me to grab a basegame copy of the house), and the one (house-only, not import) from my previous install). I also suspect whatever is wrong with the Goth house is the same as what's wrong with EVERY Charming house. 🤔

I suggest using the elimination method. First, back up the userdata and download folders, then delete and reinstall the program. After confirming that the reinstalled version works properly without crashing, restore the mods one by one. For instance, start by restoring items beginning with 'A,' and so on. Finally, try restoring the userdata folder. Each time you restore something, launch the game to see if it still crashes. This way, you can identify the root cause of the problem.

I suspect a reinstall might well fix the issue even if just because it might install to a different sector... This has inspired me to check something today before I commit to a reinstall (because I'm apparently allergic to reinstalling this game after the ordeal getting it done (on Windows) in January... and the pulling my hair out more recently to NOT get it working in Wine on Linux...). (At one point the Downloads folder did have only known working files in it, though, because I took only the Maxis files from my known to be working January backup and they did not fix my current install when they work fine in my previous install.)

*goes off to try the idea I have and report back*

EDIT: Okay! So... it's not the problem I thought it was... but somehow it's an object ID conflict with a bad draft I didn't realize was there of a beta ported object (the cheap bed from the beta shares a GUID with the Napoleon Sleigh Bed, which is on both the Charming and Goth lots and the draft probably utilizes a directly ported beta OBJD)... except I'm confused WHY that's the only issue because the bed was in the RugOMatic folder and thus was not there during some of the tests that resulted in crashes (namely the ones where I specifically left it out, as well as when I was pulling from my backup because even if I had grabbed the RugOMatic folder it's from before that object was created...). What. Reinstall postponed for now at least (might still happen for an unrelated unimportant reason but yeah).