No, you were trying to make the idea look ridiculous and out of place. You're not the first to try that, considering people's ignorance and prejudice against The Sims is still prevalent within the gaming community (which consists of a toxic hellhole). Housing has been a part of MMORPGs and RPGs since forever, and if you weren't trying to make a bad faith comparison, you wouldn't be talking about The Sims.
And if you can't see the ROLEPLAYING aspect of it, it's okay, but a lot of people do, including me. I'd like to humanize my commander, because right now I feel like a murder hobo. Having a nice house and interacting with people there (rp sessions, interaction with other player in there, something you cannot visualize) would help me achieve something above a murder hobo. But that's me. There's a lot of reasons, you just need to ask around to understand why and how housing is good for the rp/rpg fans.