This is the thing I agree in theory with the Disney-direction is that we DO need to move on from those characters. And we DO need to move on from the main conflict too. I liked TFA because of the new characters, that movie could have worked if they completely ignore the original three or if they are just talked about or mentioned. Execution however...
TLJ so loudly promotes that "it's not Luke's or Leia's story anymore, it's time to move on" yet spends most of the film getting Leia heavily involved in most things and putting Luke as a character and his redemption in the very centre of the story whereas TFA did a much better job of sticking with the new characters without putting that much emphasis on the old gang.
Setting aside the issue of how TLJ vs. TFA handles the old cahracters, I abslutely think we need to move past the Jedi/Sith, Republic/Empire (or Ersatz Empire), OT heroes and their parents stuff.
There are only so many stories you can tell in that framework before it all just feels kinda samey and dull. You can still keep the settings/eras, but you have to vary the types of stories.
The way I see it, the "saga" films serve as the setup for the new state of the universe. Each time you do that, you provide a backdrop against which to tell more stories which don't necessarily have to do with the specific circumstances depicted in the films. Kinda like Rogue One. But you could go even farther afield and tell stories completely unrelated to the larger struggle (rather than "Here's the backstory on the opening crawl...").
I'll be honest here. When the new movies were announced and the old cast was gonna be in it, I knew what direction they'd head. No "happily ever after" for any of them, and likely we'd be watching one or all of them die in the new films. This should have been patently obvious to most folks. You can't tell new stories abotu new characters with these folks lurking around in the background. The question will always be "But why didn't so and so just come and help them?!" and no answer would be 100% believable. "Even if that's the case, you'd think they'd have
tried to do it!" You see it even now with people's discussion of Luke's retreat to Ach-To. "Why didn't Luke even try to help? Even with the story they told, he should have gone down fighting!" Basically, you can't have your old heroes outshine your new ones, and if the new ones outshine the old ones, it's either because the old ones have been diminished, or because they're dead. Or both, as the case has proven to be so far.
My original idea for what I'd like to see was to fling the story several hundred years into the future (which would also potentially have preserved the EU for those who wanted to), some 3+ generations beyond the lives of the OT heroes. That way, the old school heroes would get their "happily ever after," you wouldn't have yet more stormtroopers and tie fighters and Evil Empires, there'd be no Sith, either. I told myself that such a story would still be recognizably "star wars" if it had enough touchstones, but you know what? It would've been like JJ Trek. You'd have the veneer of Star Wars (with blasters and lightsabres and Jedi), but no connection to the soul of it. OR at least it'd be a LOT harder to establish that connection. I think the new films are acting as a kind of bridge between the old and what is to come. TFA had one foot very firmly planted in the OT era. TLJ has that foot almost moved out of it. I can see where the change is jarring for many, but the change is necessary or the franchise will simply retell the same story over and over and over until people completely lose interest.