I completely understood. You said, " The USA brought down Hussein and now the Taliban has taken his place." A new baddie replaces the last. So, it really didn't matter. In fact, most experts agree the situation is worse. Can the same be argued for TFA? Everyone seems worse off. So, would they have been better off if the events of the OT never happened? TFA diminishes/nullifies the OT.
The War of 1812! Trade disputes! The PT! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Look, no one is changing anyone else's mind. For me, it boils down to two simple items that left me disappointed with the TFA:
1) As virtually every professional review (positive and negative) has noted, it is awfully similar to the OT, ANH especially. Some feel that was necessary, others don't. I would have preferred a more creative approach.
2) I see no tangible effect from the adventures of the OT and the heroes that built this franchise. Others respond with "real world" and "history repeats itself." Great. I would have liked to see some acknowledgment that the OT mattered. "Got the ball rolling"? If so, it's right back where it started. I see no tangible results from the trilogy that "got the ball rolling." Everything is virtually as it was so that ball needs to get rolling again. And again. And again.
For me, TFA is a solid B+ but I was hoping for an A+. I was entertained. I'm so glad Star Wars is back but I also expected more. That I was able to give it such a high grade while being disappointed is a testament to my love of the franchise.
I totally understand why people love it. There's a lot to praise. However, I'm baffled that so many (not everyone) can't acknowledge that there are reasonable flaws as well.
Check out the Wookiepedia entry on the Galactic Concordance.
The short version is that the Alliance did win after Endor. Actually, about a year after Endor specifically, when they defeated the Empire at the Battle of Jakku (Rey's planet), after which the Concordance is signed. It basically acts as a cease-fire between the belligerents, requiring the Empire to stop expanding and stay on its side of the border, so to speak, as well as relinquish claims on Coruscant. Around this time, a bunch of Imperial ships jumped out to the unknown regions, where they later banded together to form the First Order.
But, the important takeaway: there were just shy of 30 years of peace thereafter, which is a big part of why most of the Republic was demilitarized. But you had 30 years where folks though "Wow! We won!"
It wasn't "all for naught," but it's not as if the OT heroes had zero effect on the galaxy. They did win, they did manage to secure peace and true representative government for at least a decent portion of the galaxy, and they defeated most of the Empire. The heroes themselves...yeah, they ended up with darker stories than I'd have expected. But, again, I think it goes to propel the conflict moving forward.
Another way to look at this is to consider the scope of history itself. I don't mean in the "history repeats itself" sense, I mean in terms of history being a long series of wars followed by peace followed by wars followed by peace. Pick any point in human history in any culture, and then fast-forward about, oh, anywhere from 30-60 years, and you'll find that most cultures have gone through some kind of war(s) or hardships.
Now, if you want to criticize that the new films lost the sort of "Fairy tale" quality of the old ones...yeah, I'll give you that. But that was bound to happen simply because fairy tales
end with "And they all lived happily ever after." The story is done with. It doesn't continue. You close the book and go to bed. Lights out. Once you answer the question of "And then what happened," either the story becomes boring, or the story turns tragic. So, you either have to create entirely new characters, or you ruin the lives of the old ones.
You see this in the "Game of Thrones" stories, where the history of the fictional universe is littered with periods where such and such king reigned peacefully and prosperously for umpteen years, until he died and was succeeded by his lunatic/incompetent/corrupt/brutal son who plunged the realm into war once again or whathaveyou, until THAT guy was overthrown or died and a new king showed up to rule and put the realm to peace once again...until HE died and things turned to crap again. It's just kind of the waxing and waning of fictional worlds, if they're allowed to continue, if they don't end with "happily ever after."
--EDIT--
One point to be clear: I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong, or that your response to the film is invalid. I get the disappointment. For me, watching Han Solo die had that effect. Mostly because it sort of represented the death of my childhood in a way. I could look past it because I liked the rest of the film, but it stung. As I knew it would, as I had always suspected when they announced that the OT heroes would be in this one.
All I'm trying to do is offer...I dunno...some kind of mental jungle-gym on which you can do whatever kind of mental acrobatics are necessary to get yourself to a place where maybe the disappointment is at least muted, if not eliminated altogether.