Yep, "doing something different" can always backfire or be bad (as many TLJ haters obviously claim for this particular film) but I really love that at the end of the day neither TFA nor TLJ sat on their laurels and went for the low hanging fan service. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to simply have Han, Luke, and Leia together again, kicking *** and all that or Luke using the Force to lift AT-AT's, make Star Destroyers crash or what have you and I think it's great that they put story over uninspired fan pandering.
Now do I love everything about the "story" that they *did* choose? I can't say 100% yes but I'll take it because I never thought I'd watch a SW film (with OT heroes no less) that went in unexpected directions again. Also for any flaws the good still far outweighs the bad IMO.
Daisy has publicly stated that she's done after Episode IX but obviously never say never because for many years Ford said that he didn't like Han Solo and would never return to the role either. I think the "Mary Sue" comments and backlash really got to Ridley (she terminated all of her social media accounts the week after TLJ was released) and that for her the SW honeymoon is largely over.
Well as a-dev said the Empire/Rebellion conflict
was over (dead if you will) 30 years ago and LFL went out of their way to resurrect it so if they wanted to go in a new direction they could have already done that with TFA.
What's interesting is just how many people have latched on to the main villain's mantra as if it's the official company line of Disney itself. Of course they don't want to "kill the past" they want to milk it for all it's worth. If Ford didn't demand to die you know that they would have enlisted him for the long haul. Going by the logic of many naysayers I guess Disney also wants to murder half the universe. Not a great way to sell tickets.