For sure, George's treatenent was likely just that, the story he wanted to tell without regard of satisfying anyone beyond that and that's a risky proposition for a film designed to relaunch a franchise.
Exactly. I suspect this is why Disney "wasn't thrilled" by George's treatment. Especially now that he's not surrounded by people and/or budgets reining him in, George tells the stories that George finds interesting, and to hell with everyone else. If you like it, awesome. If not, he doesn't really care. George has one audience, and one audience alone that he really wants to make happy: himself. Even if he's trying to tell a story that he thinks kids will enjoy, or whathaveyou, it's still his singular understanding of what that means.
Disney, on the other hand, was relaunching a franchise that it had just paid several
BILLION WITH A "B" dollars for, on the theory that doing so would make it untold billions more. But for that to work, the first film had to be as broadly appealing as possible, and that meant shooting for audience approval rather than whatever the hell George dreamed up, good, bad, or mediocre. Because you can't sell video games, t-shirts, toys, lunchboxes, park rides, Halloween costumes, plush dolls, home media, movie tickets, and beyond if the audience doesn't really like your film. And the first film in a series ultimately buys you several films worth of goodwill.
To put it another way: if your first film is good to great, you can expect that audiences will give you....not quite a pass, but at least the benefit of the doubt for probably 3-4 more films, hoping that you recapture whatever magic you had in the first one. But if you blow the first one, then the audience starts getting skeptical and untrusting, and you have to rely a LOT more on big marketing buys and the underlying strength of your brands. (See also: DCEU)
