https://news.avclub.com/gary-kurtz-outlines-original-darker-ewok-less-ending-1798221255
I get why Lucas didn’t want to kill off Han. It makes sense 30 years on, but killing one of the big three would have been a huge downer. Star Wars is essentially a fairy tale and good always triumphs over evil in those.
I’ve never seen the point in killing Han in RotJ. His character didn’t need to sacrifice himself to prove worth or to make up for anything. It wouldn’t propel the story the way it did in TFA, and I didn’t like it then either (mainly because I could see it coming as soon as the ST announcement was made).
Duracell’s point about the best fairy tales having very dark elements is absolutely true and I do agree that RotJ needed some edge. But just killing one of the mains wouldn’t have achieved that. Kurtz’s idea of ending with Luke heading off to find “The Other” is great though.