Sims 4 Inverse Kinematic (IK) Rig In Blender For Easier / Faster Joint Movement - Progress?

So I've spent ages searching online hoping to find an answer to this question: Why are sims 4 models so tedious to pose compared to other models?

Maybe I'm just stupid and I'm missing something completely obvious. I'm a total noob when it comes to this animation thing afterall. But I just can't seem to find any answers...

So after watching several tutorials on rigging models on youtube, I've been playing around with the default rig from The Sims 4 Studio and I think I might have made some progress with it:

Here is a sample of default method we're familiar with:
(basically a bit of a pain in the butt)

And here is what I've managed to figure out so far:

It's still pretty horrible of course, but as I have no real idea what the heck I'm doing, I'd say it's not that bad... I'm learning things.

I've got a couple of other things I want to try, including learning how to rig an .obj model to see if I can make some progress there instead.

If anyone happens to know how to make this better, or how to properly use Inverse Kinematics on Sims 4 models, please, PLEASE do share! For the sake of all Sims 4 animatiors' sanity. ;)