To be honest growing out the Star wars extended universe stuff was a good call. Adopting that mess would have been completely impossible. All the original actors has aged out and replacing them with new actors would have been a big disaster.

But you are right in that they started a new trilogy without any idea where they were going with it. And that’s JJ Abrams all over. Him and his stupid mystery box where he invents something without having any idea what the end game for it is. He’s literally done this with every property he’s touched.