Like many others here I won't say that the Sim market is dead, yet.
Regardless of our beliefs on the subject, developers are in the business to make a profit and PC exclusive Simulations are not turning out the figures to sustain the market indefinitely. TBH with you, the main reason for this is the longevity of these Sim titles and in part the moddability of each Sim, while initially boosting sales, does nothing but hurt the following title in a series.
We all live in a disposable society and games are becoming more and more disposable along with it. As such developers and production studios have realised where the money is and are moving over in their droves. For example; the SH series has sold 1.5 million copies in it's lifetime but a single console game will sell that in 1 weekend (if not a single day).
Which brings me nicely onto the subject of consoles.
For the mature Sim gamers, you lot don't half moan about consoles killing off PC games and yet by your own admissions the consoles don't cater for your genre of game. So what's the problem?
Personally, as I lack the available free time to devote to PC games at the moment, my console sees most of my time and why not, I can switch it on and be in game within 40secs, do anything I currently do on my PC, I don't have to worry about whether my hardware can run the game and I don't have constantly moan about DRM.
As for being a mindless console gamer who enjoys the l33t games like CoD4
(not really but it's a good example) I feel the stereotype being plastered around Subsim to be a little offensive and borne of a small mind, but what should I suspect from a PC based forum, oh that's right exactly what I would read from a console based forum. Tit for tat! I don't bracket myself into a PC or Console only choice, why should you be so bigoted to do the same.
Now, moving on. If you are all so keen for the Sim genre to last and have a bright future you should be asking the developers to consider console variations of their titles. Both the PS3 and XBox are capable of running Sims when properly coded and the PS3 does support KEYBOARD & MOUSE input (know what you are talking about please). The large production studios have realised that to make serious money (which in turn boosts the genre) the consoles must be considered when developing games, the Sim market should adapt if they want to survive and be profitable.