I might be completely wrong about this but I have spent hours upon hours reading the developer blogs and speaking to developers one on one in game. Right now EA-Land is mostly TSO so it hard to understand the world that is evolving around us. However, I believe EA-Land is expected to grow into a virtual world that encompasses much much more than just the sims online. For those of us that remain sims with our sim lives playing the game of TSO, we will always be sims.
As the world grows we will encounter people that are not sims at all. To a certain extent, some of these avatars already exist in game today. There are custom content creators in game today that have no sim life at all. They have never skilled their sims, built a house or even made simoleans. The avatars have been created only for the purpose of purchasing simoleans and uploading their content to sell in stores. They do not play the sims online, however they provide a great service to the sims that do play because we benefit from the content they create.
Imagine new updates that would allow a programmer to write a script that would allow them to build some kind of interactive mini-game on a lot or hold a live concert with video feed or streaming music. The future may hold covercharges to enter places like this and they will be green free just like the residence lots we have today. The proprietors of these types of establishments will not be TSO players at all. Nor will you really be a sim when you enter.
TSO will be one game hosted in all of EA-Land. Those of us that continue to play and live sim lives will be sims. However, I foresee a world of avatars that will be in EA-Land creating and do many other things besides playing TSO.