Fuck spin-offs, characters should always explain everything at all times, whether the roof’s falling in or not!
Want good writing? Look at the prequels. Extraneous exposition is the name of the game JJ. You’ll never be a George Lucas if you keep some things mysterious and open to interpretation/speculation
But there’s a difference between leaving things open to interpretation and bad writing for the sake of convenience. I’m not saying we need Maz to tell us exactly how the lightsaber made it from Bespin to her basement. But we do need to be told WHY it ended up there. What meaning does it hold for the story and why is it important to this new trilogy, other than nostalgia and unnecessary mystery?
The same thing applies to the other things I mentioned. Rey’s history for example. We don’t need to be told exactly who her parents are and the exact course of events that led to her being left on Jakku. But we do need to know why her past is important to the overarching story. Was she a slave/orphan for sake of creating a parallel, or does her history actually have relevance to the story.
So to be more clear, we don’t need explanations of all of this stuff, we need relevance. The things in the OT that are left open to interpretation still hold meaning and relevance to the story. In TFA, there are many instances where they don’t. And my personal hope is that TLJ is able to give relevance to the convieniences of the TFA.