honestly I just gave up on post rotj

I did too. I know I'll probably get downvoted for this but in spite of TFA ripping so much of ANH's plot structure, it doesn't feel like Star Wars to me. Whenever I think of Star Wars I always tend to think of the first 6 movies and Rogue one. The Force Awakens always felt too much like fan fiction to me, which is fine if the creator is just a lover of Star Wars, not fine if you're a multi billion dollar company.

I suspect it may also do with another aspect of the series. With the exception of Rogue One and The Force Awakens, all the Star wars movies have historically been indie movies - wildly popular indie movies, but still distinctly separate from the mainstream. What's more, they've all had heavy influence from (rather than Hollywood scriptwriters) George Lucas. Say what you might about George Lucas, but in spite of his flaws as a director he's a great ideas man. That's why I like the prequels: the ideas are great IMHO, even if the scriptwriting sucks. Since I'm not a big movie guy I'm easily able to look past the actual writing flaws.

Now if you look at TFA on the other hand, it has none of George Lucas' influence besides the need for continuity, and it's a very mainstream movie as far as directing and writing decisions go. What's more, they wanted to play it safe. This resulted in a technically "good" movie script-wise, but it was terribly lacking in ideas. It had none of what made Star Wars special, which was the unexpected amount of sheer world building in every movie. While there was some of this in TFA, it didn't intrigue me personally in any way. New planets were introduced in such a way that they were utterly useless as soon as our heroes left them.

Anyway, I realize I've been ranting. Keep in mind this is just my opinion, and I don't mean to push it as objective fact.