These are the exact reasons why I've long held the belief that Star Wars ended in 1983. Everything else, regardless of how we feel about it, is just tacked on. It's bonus material, for good or ill. The longer they drag it on the less meaning it has and I'm tired of settling for scraps.
The irony is that while the imaginative spirit of the films on the surface feels rife with possibilities, it's actually very, very limited. In 1977 Star Wars was the exception. Now it's the rule. Today everything is trying to emulate it and build on that gargantuan structure of franchise which often sacrifices story for attempts at world building. Star Wars in its prime stood out because it was well made escapism that contrasted the gritty pessimism of the day. Now almost all we have is forgettable schlock that's rarely executed well enough to even be watched more than once and more often than not there's no sincerity behind any of it. The culture has become too cynical and it's crept it's way into entertainment to the point where everything has to be downbeat and angsty.
Instead of inspiring a generation of filmmakers to make their own original stories, they just keep playing in George's sandbox rather than do the hard work of creating their own world that has nothing to do with a galaxy far, far away. Couple that with the studio system that George inadvertently created and it's no wonder we're inundated with comic book films and blockbuster mania because no one is willing to take a risk on a new story.
For a generation of people who were influenced by this property there are so few who actually have the vision to use it as a vehicle to motivate their own creations and sadly they can't see the forest for the trees. Which is why rearranging the parts of Star Wars into different configurations never totally satisfies.
You know everyone thought the LOTR had too many endings. Star Wars has them beat. 1983, 2005, 2019, and countless books, video games, novels, TV shows, cartoons, and comics have over saturated the market. Sometimes less really is more. Sometimes these things can overstay their welcome.
Like you said
Usagi Pilgrim we're not chasing after Star Wars, what we're really after is the feeling it gave us and endlessly rehashing the same thing is never going to get us anywhere. I think this applies to lots of properties too. Instead of reinventing them, why not create new ones? I don't want or need 5 versions of Masters of the Universe or Spiderman, or Batman. It's hard to get excited for more of the same when it would be far better to get enthusiastic over something truly fresh.
Give me more Stranger Things. Show like that were influenced by the things we love, but the Duffer brothers had the guts to make their own story. We need more content like that than we do another Skywalker saga.
We don't want more Star Wars. What we want is inspiration.