He basically found a way to build a more populous city (presumably) than anyone else, ever. He also found a pattern that seems to keep the city crime-free and educated with full employment and no apparent pollution. This would take quite an investment of time without using any cheats.
Well, no. He has a perfectly stable, high-population city, but it has none of those things except crime-free status
"There are a lot of other problems in the city hidden under the illusion of order and greatness: Suffocating air pollution, high unemployment, no fire stations, schools, or hospitals, a regimented lifestyle - this is the price that these sims pay for living in the city with the highest population. It’s a sick and twisted goal to strive towards. The ironic thing about it is the sims in Magnasanti tolerate it. They don’t rebel, or cause revolutions and social chaos. No one considers challenging the system by physical means since a hyper-efficient police state keeps them in line. They have all been successfully dumbed down, sickened with poor health, enslaved and mind-controlled just enough to keep this system going for thousands of years. 50,000 years to be exact. They are all imprisoned in space and time."
I don't know how the game works so this may not even be part of it, but it's incredible if such a high density population was able to keep growing for 50,000 years without being constantly devastated by disease and epidemics, despite not having any hospitals.
Flush toilets, mosquito control, not coughing on people and washing your hands after pooping are much more important for preventing epidemics.
All a hospital will do is cure a small number of people in a small scale epidemic. But lets face it, if Mangasanti is your goal, you are probably willing to let 20 people die of preventable diseases at home.
> and educated with full employment and no apparent pollution.
From the article: There are a lot of other problems in the city hidden under the illusion of order and greatness: Suffocating air pollution, high unemployment, no fire stations, schools, or hospitals, a regimented lifestyle - this is the price that these sims pay for living in the city with the highest population ... They have all been successfully dumbed down
Obviously the video is pure melodrama though.