I’m confused when you say the ST has a lack of cohesion with the other six films and then say ST feels like a franchise extension with recycling of many elements.
In my view the ST should feel like a natural progression of the six film saga, whilst respecting it’s underlying themes.
The ST thusfar feels like a big reset of the OT Empire versus rebels set up. TLJ is still almost completely driven by OT story points, as TFA was. In my view it tries too hard to distuingish itself through story twists, specifically tailored to elicit a “look they’re doing it different from the OT, because the OT did A in this situation, and they’re doing B” response, rather than just telling it’s own story.
The reality is, that ROTJ was the natural ending of the saga, and ultimately was set up as such. IMO it would have been better if they would have just told their own story from the get go, as RJ hopefully will do in the near future. Of course the fans wanted to see more adventures of our classic heroes, and financially it made perfect sense, but story wise the ST, whilst entertaining, weakens the saga and it’s underlying themes in my view by not being driven by an overarching story and common themes, but by the demands of franchise extension.