Not actually installing

I've hunted around and can't find a solution to this problem.

I downloaded TS3 and all expansions from this site, been trying to install them for two days following the mac install guide. My first try failed, and I uninstalled everything and started trying again, more carefully. The base game, World Adventures, and High End Loft Stuff appear to work--the guide only says to install the crack at the very end, so I can't completely open them, but the launcher still opens, which is a step ahead of where I was last time. I started installing Ambitions. The installer did not run into any errors or problems, and the game believes Ambitions has been installed. But there's no alias icon for it in my Applications folder like the other packs have, and when I do "show package contents" on the Sims 3 app, there's no folder for Ambitions in it. I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling repeatedly, creating a new DMG, and redownloading the rar, and deleting the only associated plist I could find, and nothing helped.

I've been following the guide exactly, except that I also restart my computer after every install before testing the launcher again. I ran the launcher's updater after installing the base game, just as the guide says, and it worked just fine then. I don't know if that makes any difference to my problems now; I intended to run the manual patcher after installing all the EPs and SPs like the various guides say to. I have not tried running the launcher despite the missing EP. I've doublechecked the size of the DMG every time I make one, and tried making it bigger than strictly necessary. I've tried sticking TS3 in a subfolder. Nothing makes any difference that I can see.

...help?

EDIT: I tried redownloading the torrent file, then the rar, and found several more plists to be deleted, but the installer does the same thing. Poking around in "show package contents" reveals that there is an Ambitions in the AddOns folder, but it does not have a folder in Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Electronic Arts. I did notice that the files/folders that WA has in its folder exist in the Ambitions rar. It couldn't be as simple as making my own folder for those, could it? Would trying that be likely to hose my game? (Then again, I wouldn't be that much worse off...)

Reply instead of edit because I may have solved my problem.

After doing a very clean uninstall/reinstall this morning, I ran into the same issue with Ambitions, so I tried creating a "The Sims 3 Ambitions" folder in the Show Package Contents > Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Electronic Arts folder, and put "Caches", "Game", "GameData", and "Thumbnails" from the DMG directly in it, and the launcher now runs. I will update at to whether the game itself will recognize it when I finish all my installing.

 EDIT: No good. It seemed to be working--I had to use this manual folder install for Ambitions, Fast Lane, Late Night, and Outdoor Living, and the launcher didn't show FL or LN, but it still opened and seemed to be doing okay. Generations installed the folder on its own, but then after I rebooted Generations was the only expansion folder in there, and the launcher gave me "Unknown Error." I guess I need to do another clean uninstall and try again, but why would this happen? Even the expansion folders that installed on their own vanished! Do I need to let the launcher patch expansions when it asks to? Crack and manually patch each expansion as I get to it and test it by going into the actual game? Re-torrent everything?