I think the complaint about Krennic landing a mile away from everything is justified, but I’m not going to get stuck on something like that too much.
I just wanna address this because it was my first thought in the theater and I quickly explained it to myself, so the continual complaints about it have been bothering me for a bit.
Obviously, from a cinematic standpoint, landing further away gives you the drama and tension of the walk to the house. We all know that much. But “cinematically good” doesn’t always make sense realistically.
So, from an in-universe realism standpoint, there are a few reasons to land far away.
First, there’s the matter of finding a level place to set down that can support the weight of a craft that probably weighs at least a dozen tons. We can see in this image that most of the terrain on the close side of the green band is pretty rocky and uneven. From what I’ve read about Lah’mu, it’s a planet with lots of volcanic and geyser activity, so it’s possible that a lot of the ground isn’t stable or solid enough to support the weight of a shuttle (I’m assuming they can scan the surface/subsurface to find a suitable place to land as well). You don’t want to set down and immediately break through the surface and land in lava or scalding water, and you don’t want to set down all cockeyed, either.
Second, there’s the chance that they’re taking precautions in case the Erso’s mined or otherwise trapped the surrounding area, considering he’s hiding from the Empire and has known Rebel connections. Generally in a military operation you land a bit farther out and then move in, get what you need, and move back out to an extraction point. So it could be a tactical move.
Third, I remember watching the Star Destroyer take off over Jedha and wondering if there was any kind of jet wash from an action like that. Then later on, my question was answered when the jet wash from Krennic’s shuttle nearly blows Jyn off the platform on Eadu. So it comes down to a matter of politeness: I wouldn’t want a giant shuttle with the ability to blow a person several meters back with its jet wash landing in my backyard and whipping up rocks and dust and breaking my windows and knocking over my moisture vaporators and making a ton of noise. It’s just plain good starship etiquette to land further out and walk a bit to prevent that, especially when you’re making a “social call” to “appeal to a friend” to help you with a project.