I do not have a practical use for this but I love this application. It's fun to stop sometime and see how much my sims are so connected to everyone around them in a neighborhood. I would say I would like it to have not included friends or that the green lines be for family and maybe different color lines for friends. Have you clicked this button ever?

I click one or two of these almost every time I'm in neighborhood view. It helps me stay oriented in the neighborhood. And I love seeing the spaghetti-like tangle that springs forth from some of the houses in Drama Acres!

I'd forgotten it was even there. I used it a bit back when I played families more, but now I don't need it much.

Not often, but I do. There is a weird kind of satisfaction in seeing all those green lines tangle all over the place.

In my isolated neighborhoods where Sims are only allowed to marry other Sims from the same 'hood, I use it to keep track of who's available to marry who... especially when I haven't played the neighborhood for a while, it's a useful reminder. I can usually remember whether Sims are related or not, but it's a useful way to see all of the neighborhood's relationships at once, so I can plan out my storytelling better. I don't want to lose any of the families in town just because there's no one left that their heir can marry!

Very rarely. Because it gets complicated as most of the families are related.
But now that you remind me of it, I think I shall check it next time I'm in the hood view.

Only by accident!

I sometimes do if I feel a bit confused, but not much really. I always set the relationship panel on 'All'.

A few times; in most cases, it only connects to one or two houses. In the highest case, it connected to almost every house.

I don't usually use it because my Sims are friends/relatives with lots of Sims from different subhoods. Therefore, for example, there are only 3 green tubes/lines displayed out of 10 or something.

But it was a neat feature, back in the day when there were no subhoods.

I've only used it once, it was cool though.

I like it, and do use it.
I like to be reminded about who knows who, and where does your friends live already...?

Sometimes, to see all of my Sims' friends and families.

"Ditto". This is a handy tool for keeping track of connections - for many reasons. So, yes I also make use of this.

I used it a couple nights ago for the first time in years just because I was bored. Most of my hood is related to either the Zeeman or Vida families, more often than not both of them. Plus, as said before, when subhoods are used, it kinda takes away from it bit since you can't see all the connections. When I first started playing, though, I used it alot.

I use it almost every time just before I play a family. I just like seeing how many green lines there are.

Oh, I use it. I love it when there are green lines leading to almost every single residential lot in the hood, to the point it looks like a monstrous plant grew out of their home and covered the entire neighborhood with its stems.

Since my hood has a system of noble (a royal family, three ducal families) and semi-noble ("patricians" in urban areas and "gentry" in rural ones) families, family ties are very important for social status, so I pull it up now and then to get a sense which commoner families might be on the brink of moving up a notch. I definitely agree with the OP that there should be two options for friends and relatives, though- I mean, BFF status has some meaning, but just a regular friendship isn't exactly a meaningful gameplay issue, especially when you play with no Maxis jobs like I do. Still, I like my sims to have a fair number of friends just to keep things harmonious on community lots. The Grand Duke takes a very dim view of public fistfights in his Very Homelike Land.

I used to use it just out of curiosity and boredom, I like seeing how everyone relates. I hadn't clicked it in a looooong time until last night I went through all my households and I made very obvious yet interesting observations such as:
-Every house is connected to the Piccolo Mansion, which makes sense. They are the founders, wealthiest family, and need to know everyone in order to get what they want. I think it's nice to know that they're aware of all of the families in the town though, not just the high class ones.
-The Lightyear and Ferry households also have a bunch of lines going across the town, which makes perfect sense since the Lightyears are somehow related to many of the households and the Ferrys have been around the town since the Piccolos.
-Most households added this generation (my hood is only on it's 3rd generation, oldest sims of the 3rd are only teens) have only a few green lines, which would be obvious
-Even though the Ottomas family was only added this generation, they have more green lines because of all the people in their household being able to make more friends.

Yeah, sometimes, it's a nice button.

I never use it. I prefer looking at the family tree every now and then instead, and I'm always on top of sims' relationship panel so I tend to know who they are friends with.

I used to do that sooo much when I started playing, I thought it was so cool...and now I realize I've never done it with my megahood! I guess I forgot about it...but now I have to try it on a few of the more dramatic households next time I get to play! I think there might be some giant-plant appearances going on on some of them...