Yes that was his initial and natural reaction, but he also said many times that he came to appreciate Rian's take on the character, and agreed that Luke becoming just another benevolent Obi-Wan wouldn't have been nearly as interesting.
Interesting maybe, I just wish the writing and plan had been better, because as far as I can see at this point from both sequel trilogy episodes, there doesn't seem to be a plan, just discord.
Ultimately, we disagree on this movie. I already stated my reasons for my issues with how Luke was handled, and for you I guess Ben Solo turning was enough for Luke to lose hope even after destroying the Death Star, Confronting Vader and finding out Vader was his Hitler-esque father, then confronting the Emperor. I just disagree with that, if it had been written with more subtlety and thoughtfulness and back story to give enough fill-in for the gaps, maybe I would feel differently.
Luke was only one of the issues though. Upon thinking about your words, you're right that the scripts of these last two Star Wars really do make all the characters pathetic. There is no synergy in the stories, they don't feel interwoven so much as contrived. The figures, to me, are just a reminder of that. To me, TFA and TLJ failed miserably when taken in context of all the other Star Wars movies. If they were judged on their own, there are still issues but they're at least interesting and at times entertaining. But in context and as Star Wars movies, I have to ignore so much in order to enjoy them that it's hardly worth it for me.
Apparently I'm not alone. See, I'm not trying to cause trouble for anyone or just criticize anyone, its just I'm grieving; for me, Star Wars was a place I could escape to; it's not any more; I don't think anyone set out to destroy Star Wars, and I believe some people enjoy these movies; okay. For me, I can't get past the inconsistencies and whole new feel that would have been better befitting of a reboot and not a sequel. Changes in characters, changes in style of humor... I would have preferred that they had none of the old characters and only new characters, because while you appreciate and enjoy what you see, I am saddened and sickened by my experience of it. I'm not putting anyone who enjoyed it down, that's great you can enjoy it. I'm not saying anyone ***** my childhood or any other nonsense like that. I can't help how I feel about this, I feel grief, it feels to me like Star Wars has died, and that I've lost a place I could escape to now and then.
Princess Leia is not Mary Poppins... she demonstrated no Force abilities (other than having sensitivity to Luke and Han) that I can think of.
Han and Leia's son should have more back story to explain why he is so dedicated to Snoke that he would kill his own father.
Luke needs more back story to explain how he could become so demoralized.
Just those last two points shows one of two things in my mind: either something was left out and hasn't been revealed yet (and if so, hopefully it will be in Ep 9) or it just seems to me to be poorly written. Hopefully it's not the latter and hopefully I'm wrong, maybe Ep 9 will clear everything up for me, guess we'll see.
There are too many questions and not enough answers. And the romance Finn has doesn't seem to fit in, it felt like a detour that added nothing to the story.
Part of the art of good storytelling is knowing when to leave a question, and when to answer a question... the difference between brilliance and poor writing.
I want to like these movies... but at the moment, I feel how I feel, and getting the figures from them would only be like adding salt to a wound.
Anyway, fortunately they are just movies, even though they had meaning for me, fortunately there are many other things in my life that have meaning for me too and I can fill my life with those things instead.
For those who love TLJ, I can honestly say I don't understand, but that's okay; I'll just add it to all the other things I don't understand. I am curious if you understand why I don't like the film?