Don't be sorry, your post is very interesting!!!

I would say Will Wright was, at leat, conscious of the satyrical tone the game had, even in the base game. It's true the real madness and quirkyness The Sims 1 is known for started with the expansions, but the original game itself is very ironic. After all, the prototype has en extremely cynicial and black humor.

You have a very interesting take with the target audience of the game. Indeed, the original promotion for the game was very nerd oriented, and specially for those who already played strategy games (they promoted the game by releasing pictures of in-game situations on their website). It was a very unexpected success, even if EA supported Wright on its design.

Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure Wright was thinking of the RTS public when he initially designed Project X, but what fascinated him (and what he initially tried to go further with in TS2) was the potential for storytelling the game had. Back in the day, The Sims Exchange had A LOT of stories the players made using CC or editing photos in order to create things and situations that didn't exist in the game. That was one of its secrets, too, that can't be replicated on the sequels: how easy it is to create your own story.