When the sale was announced they also announced that the EU was no longer considered canon or quasi canon and that 7, 8, and 9 would not be beholden to them, going so far as to create a video to announce that the EU was now coined as Legends and was an alternate timeline outside Disney's new official canon. So at that point I didn't know what to expect.
As much as I loved the EU growing up, as a writer myself I was relieved that they weren't going to limit themselves to those existing storylines, not to mention much of them would have to be retconned anyway to account for the ages of the original cast.
In hindsight you could argue that a lot of those ideas from the EU were recycled into the ST but in 2012 it was anyone's guess. Though you have to consider there are huge sections of the Fandom that had no interest in the EU at all, so that argument doesn't hold water in their case either because they didn't know the content of those books and they still hated the ST all the same.
This very forum has proven that there were many directions the story could have gone with members here proposing ideas that far surpassed what Lucasfilm delivered. Even so, if the official films had been executed better, with a more consistent plot and character motivations I think most of us would have been on board, or at the least would have been far less critical.
It just feel disengenuous to honestly argue that ST detractors didn't like the film's because they didn't fit into their head canon. To me that's a cop out to dismiss any critical thought on the matter instead of being frank about the creative choices that were made. Otherwise we aren't having a genuine discussion and we are being told to like it no matter what we were given, or we aren't true fans. If we are going to dismiss critical thought entirely then we are all wasting our time here.
I'm critical because I care too much about this series and perhaps that says more about me than I like to admit but here I am openly saying it anyway because I'd rather be sincere about it than lie to try and save face. I'm glad a lot of fans enjoyed the ST, often qualifying 90% of my posts with this exact sentiment, but there are a lot of fans I've encountered over the last 5 years that vehemently disagree with me and won't allow for any dissenting opinions, rather than allowing us to each agree to disagree on the matter.
I'm not suggesting all ST fans do this, because I'm friends with lots of people who disagree with me on a variety of subjects that actually matter and not just Star Wars. It's just incredibly frustrating to be dismissed by the fans who would rather tell me to politely, and sometimes not so politely, to shut up.
And when I'm out of line, I've been checked on it and rightly so, and I'm not so arrogant to deny it, and I've apologized often when I've crossed a line. Sadly I can't say the same for some of the fans I've encountered.
But to get us back on topic the ST sucks royally but there is room enough for everyone in this Fandom no matter what you like.