Well, how else would a ground assault look like? Walkers have been established as an effective force, if they came up with somehting new, people would ask “where are the walkers?”. Also, trenches are a very common defense against ground attacks and if there wasn’t a rebel base, what else would be the target of a ground attack? And the planet is nothing like Hoth.
I also must have missed the scene in Empire, where the Empire blasts a huge door away, or the TIE fighters joinging the ground attack or where Han flies directly at the enemy force to sacrifize himself, or Luke facing Vader to buy his friends some time.
Umm, just have terrain that doesn’t suit walkers such as in R1 where Cassian is trying to assassinate Jyn’s father?
The TIE fighters being there and Millenium Falcon dropping in out of no where (with accompanying “WOOO!” except it’s not Han saying it this time) to save the lone ship flying in a straight line (like in a trench) as the last hope in destroying “old Death Star tech” just before it fires on the Rebel base, is an element taken straight out of ANH and mixed into the recycled TESB battle of Hoth. Having just written that out, I’ve just realised it is literally the final trench run by Luke from ANH inserted in the battle of Hoth v2 except that it’s a Death Star cannon instead of the Death Star itself and Finn never reaches it in time to destroy it before it fires because of Rose. There’s two subversions right there for you once you realise it’s the Death Star trench run v2 (or should I say v4 since it’s kinda repeated in ROTJ and again in TFA against the Star Killer Base).
TLJ is literally riddled with recycled OT scenes and themes among other elements.
.Val
I don’t thing many would deny that it does recycle things. Lucas recycled plenty for the PT. He recycles plenty within the OT. That is kind of what Star Wars does. But it is the differences that give us the unique stories. As you pointed out yourself, the elements are mixed and matched to make something different. I think everyone guessed the battle on crait would feel like Hoth in some ways from the trailers. But it isn’t like Hoth in the story, not by any stretch of the imagination. The one thing I noticed when I first saw the movie was how much of the scene in Snokes red throne room was reminiscent of the throne room scene in ROTJ. It was the same with the several encounters in the PT with Count Dooku. And no two of them are alike. The contrast of the familiar and the new is what makes this movie feel like Star Wars while not being a rehash of any one other story. TFA had too many plot points in common with ANH. Not enough for me to call it a rehash, but enough for many. This is a very different story from TESB. There are some similarities. It is the middle act, things go terribly wrong, but the heroes come out the other side to fight another day. There is Jedi training. But that is were it ends. The plots and details don’t follow any previous plot and gave us something different. Now whether that created a story you like… that is a personal preference. But it did create a unique story with character development and revelations that put the characters in a different place at the end.